Naturalized Kenyan runner Nora Jeruto finished fifth in the 5,000 meters at the Asian Games in Japan, a day after claiming silver in her signature 3,000-meter steeplechase, infohub.kz reports.

Jeruto ran the 5-kilometer race alongside her national team friend Daisy Jepkemey, who had earlier finished fourth in the 10,000 meters. The Kazakh runners surged ahead from the opening meters and tried to use team tactics. But the leaders were quickly caught. Daisy then dropped back a little, and Nora continued the fight for medals on her own.

Our athlete led almost until the final lap. Then Winfred Yavi of Bahrain and Japan's Nozomi Tanaka pulled ahead. The two of them contested gold and silver.

Jeruto, who led the race from the start, simply ran out of strength at the finish. She is fifth, Jepkemey seventh.

2026 ASIAN GAMES
September 28. 5,000 meters. Women
🥇 1. Winfred YAVI (Bahrain) – 15:10.18
🥈 2. Nozomi TANAKA (Japan) – 15:11.65
🥉 3. Parul CHAUDHARY (India) – 15:14.61
…5. Nora JERUTO (Kazakhstan) – 15:18.21
…7. Daisy JEPKEMEY (Kazakhstan) – 15:37.89

Bronze in this event in 2022 was won by another naturalized athlete, Caroline Chepkoech Kipkirui.

The Summer Asian Games officially opened on September 19 and will end on October 4. Athletes from 45 countries are competing for 460 sets of medals. Kazakhstan's team at the 2026 Asian Games includes 558 athletes in 35 sports.

On the first day of the Games, Kazakhstan won four gold medals. Cyclists Rinata Sultanova and Alexey Lutsenko became champions, as did karate athletes Zholaman Bigabyl and Sofya Berultseva. The team's fifth gold was added by MMA fighter Yerkingali Burkutalin. The sixth came from his mixed martial arts teammate Kadyrbek Shynbayev. On September 23, Lutsenko became a two-time champion of the 2026 Asian Games. The eighth gold medal was won on September 24 by rowers Vladislav Yakovlev and Ivan Chernukhin in the men's coxless pairs. The ninth gold medal was won by our epee fencing team.

The gold in race walking won by Yasmina Toksanbayeva was awarded to China after a protest over the Kazakh athlete's footwear was upheld.

After eight days of the Games, Kazakhstan was in fifth place in the unofficial medal standings.