Kenyans go the distance as India's women shine

Kenya completed its domination of the Commonwealth Games distance races on Tuesday, while India's women pulled off an historic win in the 4x400 metres relay final.

World champion Vivian Cheruiyot breezed to the women's 5,000m title while young gun Silas Kiplagat claimed the men's 1,500m gold medal.

It capped a powerful performance by the Kenyan team, which won eight of the 10 races over 800m as the athletics program wrapped up.

The only ones it failed to get its hands on was the men's 5,000m and 10,000m, where Uganda's Moses Kipsiro crashed the party.

The diminutive Cheruiyot dictated her race to cross the line in a slow 15:55.12 seconds and lead another Kenyan clean sweep with Syliva Kibet second and Ines Chenonge third.

Cheruiyot, a former world junior cross country champion, has been in top form all season to the detriment of strong opposition, especially Ethiopians.

"We are dominant because we train very hard, we train all year long," she said, adding that she wasn't entirely happy with her race.

"It was not a very good sprint because I had already relaxed. I got a little bit tired."

Kiplagat is the fastest man in the world this year in 3:29.27 and while his time was some 13 seconds adrift of that, it capped a breakthrough year for the youngster who has stepped up in the absence of Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop.

He turned on the afterburner with 200m to go and no-one could catch him with fellow Kenyan James Magut second and New Zealand's Nick Willis third.

"The pace was slow, so I wanted to push the pace," said Kiplagat, who had never run out outside his country until a few months ago.

"I started sprinting at 200m. Usually I sprint at the 50m but they went slow. The time was only 3:41 but I'm very pleased."

The biggest cheer of the night at a packed Jawarhalal Nehru Stadium, however, was reserved for the Indian women's 4x400m relay team which shocked the field by winning ahead of Nigeria and England.

It was the first-ever track gold medal won by Indian women in the Commonwealth Games and followed the podium clean sweep that India pulled off in the women's discus.

"I have got goosebumps right now. I think we won because of the crowd support we had," said Manjeet Kaur.

"I thought we would come second, but my team had the self-belief to do it."

While they celebrated, Nigerian 110m hurdler Samuel Okon shamed his country by testing positive to the banned stimulant methylhexanamine.

Okon, who finished sixth in his final, was the second competitor from Nigeria to fail a doping test with the same stimulant detected in women's 100m gold medal winner Osayemi Oludamola.

Back on the track and England won the men's 4x100m relay gold medal in 38.74 seconds with Mark Lewis-Francis running a storming last leg to pip Jamaica at the post. India came third.

"For me this is amazing. This performance brings back memories of 2004 (Britain winning gold in the 4x100m at the Athens Olympics). I couldn't have asked for more today," said Lewis-Francis.

England's women matched the feat, easily outrunning Ghana and India in their final.
Australia won the men's 4x400m relay which closed the track and field meeting ahead of Kenya and England.

With England's triple jump champion Phillips Idowu pulling out of Delhi on safety grounds, the gold medal race here was open-ended.

Nigeria's Tosin Oke won with 17.16, but his leap was well short of the 17.86m Commonwealth record set by the legendary Jonathan Edwards in 2002.

Meanwhile, Australia's Jarrod Bannister threw 81.71 metres to take the men's javelin, giving his country the title for the first time in 48 years.

Australia enjoyed more success in the women's pole vault with Alana Boyd taking the honours.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.