Image: COURTESY
Triple Olympic women's 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon has revealed that Ethiopia's Gudaf Tsegay apologized to her after the drama that was witnessed in the 5000M at the Olympics.
Kipyegon was allegedly pushed by Tsegay during the 5000M finals resulting to the revocation of her medla before it was reinstated.
Speaking to Jeff Koinange, Kipyegon said Gudaf knelt before her and apologized after the race.
"The following day after the 1500M heats, she came and knelt before me; she was very sorry and asked for forgiveness. I just forgave her because this is sports and we are likely to meet again, and we need each other because I cannot compete alone. We later became friends in the spirit of the competition," Ms. Kipyegon.
Despite the violent push, Kipyegon went ahead and won the silver medal in the race.
She mentioned that she was not disappointed to win silver in the Olympics 5,000m race.
Kipyegon said she did not think she would be disqualified but after it was announced she was disappointed.
She said this was because she did not know what wrong she had done and at that time, a lot was going on in her mind.
"I didn't think I'd be disqualified. I was not disappointed for getting the silver medal. I was disappointed for being disqualified without knowing what wrong I did. That 5,000m race got a lot into my mind," Kipyegon said.
The Olympic record holder, however, said that she was grateful for the team that appealed successfully. She said the appeal rejuvenated her and that is when she knew that she had to go for gold in the 1,500m race.
"I thank the team and I am very grateful for those who appealed and were successful it really re-energised my strength to know that with the silver we now have to go for the gold."During the games, Kipyegon fell a few seconds short of a Gold medal after she came in second to win a Silver, in the 5,000m race.
Kenyan Beatrice Chebet won the race.
