Ethiopia’s Abreham Cherkos moved up from silver two years ago in Beijing to take an expected victory.
In 2006 Cherkos ran 12:54.19 to become the fastest-ever 16-year-old, but went on to be beaten at the World Juniors that year by Tariku Bekele. However, he made no mistake this time, moving ahead of long-time leader Matthew Kipkoech Kisorio just before the bell.
Cherkos set a Championship best of 13:08.57 to finish exactly three seconds in front of Kisorio. Ethiopia’s Dejen Gebremeskel was closing rapidly on the Kenyan in the home straight, but had to settle for third in 13:11.97.
Kenya’s Vincent Yator had led the field through the opening kilometre in 2:39.91. With the group down to the five, they passed 2km in 5:21.18.
Just after seven laps, the eventual medallists sped up to move themselves clear. They went through 3km in 7:57.57 and 4km in 10:34.26.
Cherkos, who was eighth in last year’s IAAF World Championships and will compete at this year’s Olympics, said: “I expected to win because I had the best PB here and I was in good shape, but you never know with the Kenyans, they can be dangerous.”
Paul Halford for the IAAF
