In Paris

Organisers of the Paris Olympics have pulled out all stops to unleash a memorable sporting showcase here, cashing in on the city’s world-famous and iconic monuments to form the ideal backdrop for global lenses.

From the Eiffel Tower to the Arc de Triomphe, Louvre Museum, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Seine River…. all these monuments and landmarks are somewhere on some Olympic competition route.

Thursday's opening athletics events – the men’s and women’s 20-kilometre race walk competitions – were hosted on a circular course on the Trocadero, an affluent area on the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

The one-kilometre loops circles in front of the Eiffel with Ecuador’s Brian Daniel Pintado taking gold in one hour, 18 minutes and 55 seconds followed on the podium by Brazil’s Calo Bonfim (1:19:09) and Spain’s Martin Alvaro (1:19:11).

Kenya’s Samuel Gathimba had kept in touch with the lead pack until four laps to go, giving up the ghost with four laps to go and finishing 22^nd in 1:21:26 and blaming the Eiffel Tower-inspired course for his tribulations.

“The course was terrible…. It was like walking on a farm… but I’m sure those who won medals will have a different opinion,” the veteran Kenyan race walker remarked.

“I was hoping to be among the medals… I tuned my pace accordingly and stayed in touch with the leaders but, at some point, they increased the pace. I hung on but with four laps, the course got the better of me.

“There were three corners on the course which made it difficult to accelerate and make a move… even other top contenders failed to make it.

“The course was bad. I thought it would be smooth but it was challenging.”

And as Prisons warden Gathimba counted his losses, across the city on Mat One at the Champ-de-Mars Arena, compatriot Zeddy Cherotich of the Kenya Defence Forces was disarmed in the round of 32, women’s 78-kilogrammes judo competition by Portugal’s Patricia Sampaio who brought the Sergeant’s memorable, ground-breaking Olympic debut to a screeching halt.

The Portuguese destabilized Cherotich with rapid applications of ‘Sode-tsurikomi-goshi’ after nine seconds and finishing off with ‘Kuzure-kesa-gatame’ at 00:20, enough for Belgian referee Rou Babiuc to declare Sampaio winner with a 10-0 margin after just 20 seconds.

This now leaves the focus at these Olympics on Kenya’s traditional hunting ground of athletics, save for swimmer Maria Brunlehner, who is also in action in the 50 metres freestyle from 12.16pm Kenyan time Saturday, and already-eliminated “Malkia Strikers” who bid Paris goodbye with their final Pool ‘B’ match against Japan from 2pm, Kenyan time.

Track heats start at 11:10am (12.10pm Kenyan time) with the 1,500 metres’ opening heat featuring Brian Komen.

Timothy Cheruiyot, silver medalist from the last Games in Tokyo, takes to the purple track in Heat Two from 11.21am local time (12.21pm Kenyan time).

World junior mile record holder Reynold Cheruiyot has been drawn in Heat Three alongside red-hot favourite Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway from 11.32am (12.32pm Kenyan time).

There will also be action in the women’s 5,000m semi-finals featuring Beatrice Chebet and Faith Kipyegon, both out for doubles with Chebet also angling for the 10,000m gold in a race she was recently celebrated as world record holder, and Kipyegon in the 1,500m where she also holds the world record.

There’s also the 4x400m mixed relay qualifiers where Kenya is in the mix, featuring Mercy Chebet, David Sanyek, Veronica Mutua and veteran Boniface Mweresa.

But the night’s show-stopper will be the men’s 10,000m from 9.20pm local time (10.20pm Kenyan time) where Kenya will be out to attempt another stab at the gold that has, bizarrely, eluded the nation since 1968 when Naftali Temu panned the top mineral at the Mexico Games.

And it won’t be a walk in the park with the biggest threat coming from the Ugandan pair of world record holder Joshua Cheptegei (26:11.00) and Jacob Kiplimo.

Cheptegei won silver in Tokyo to compliment his gold in the 5,000m and will be looking to go one better over the longer distance.

Kenya’s trio of Japan-based Bernard Kibet, Nicholas Kimeli and Daniel Mateiko have the gargantuan task of replicating Temu’s ground-breaking achievement and will need a lot of teamwork and strategy to dislodge the Ugandans and Ethiopia’s defending champion Selemon Barega and his Addis Ababa team-mates Berihu Aregawi and Yomif Kejelcha.

Kericho-born Kibet, who runs for Team Kyudenko in Japan, could be the dark horse in this race, aiming to improve on his fifth-place finish at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest on his Olympic debut.

He clocked a personal best 26:51.09 in qualifying for the Olympics at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting at Hayward Field, Oregon, USA, in May.

"Every competition has a winner. We have prepared them adequately. They are all good in their own right, if you consider the times they have clocked this season and at the national trials during the Prefontaine Classic (in Oregon, United States),” coach Alex Sang said yesterday.

“ We have high hopes in them even though we have our perennial rivals, Uganda and Ethiopia. I know they will pose a great challenge but we trust the trio to deliver.

“We had a structured programme. We started with endurance training and then headed for speed. However, we couldn't afford time to hit the gym and hill work. We had already slipped into championship mode and it was only important that we get our priorities right. 

“The speed work was intense and we believe it has prepared our boys to finally crack the elusive title. They are cautious with how to approach the 10pm final due to the heat.”