NAIROBI, Kenya, September 13 – Olympics 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi and women’s bronze medalist Mary Moraa are among Kenyans who will be looking to close their Diamond League season on a high with victory in Brussels on Friday and Saturday.
Wanyonyi — the second fastest runner of all time — will be up against a familiar foe in Marco Arop, the two having already served up a thrilling clash in Paris as well as at the Silesia Diamond League.
The Kenyan edged out the Canadian for the Olympics title before Arop revenged with victory in Poland, clocking 1:41.86 as Wanyonyi finished second in 1:43.23.
Meanwhile, the high-flying Moraa will be out to put the gloss on what has been a dominant run in the Diamond League circuit.
The World 800m champion is a woman high on confidence, having smashed the women’s 600m world record at the ISTAF Berlin meet — clocking 1:21.63.
She followed it up with triumph at the Zurich Diamond League meeting where she timed 1:57.08, ahead of Britain’s Georgia Bell (1:57.94) and USA’s Addison Wiley (1:58.16) in second and third respectively.
Her other Diamond League victories include Doha on May 10 (1:57.91) and Lausanne on August 22 (1:57.91).
Brussels brings her face to face with Bell, Jamaican Natoya-Goule Toppin and world indoor silver medalist Jemma Reekie, with who she is tied on 31 points at the apex of the Diamond League standings.
Race for redemption
Elsewhere, the quartet of Timothy Cheruiyot, Brian Komen, Reynold Cheruiyot and Boaz Kiprugut will be seeking to resurrect their flailing Diamond League fortunes when they compete in the men’s 1500m.
It seems like long ago when Kenya last won this race on the Diamond League circuit where the African champion Komen clocked 3:32.43 to lead a clean podium sweep in Doha — Cheruiyot (3:32.67) and Reynold (3:32.96) finishing second and third respectively.
Reynold was the best performer at the last meeting in Zurich, clocking 3:32.15 in sixth as Cheruiyot (3:32.1) and Kiprugut (3:41.59) finishing 11th and 14th respectively.
It won’t be an easy race to redemption, what with the presence of Olympics champion Cole Hocker of the United States as well as 5000m champion Jakob Ingebrigsten, who leads the standings with 38 points — 17 ahead of second-placed Cheruiyot.
Mission (im)possible?
The men’s 5000m will also be one to watch with Kenya’s Ronald Kwemoi — fresh from winning the Olympics 5000m silver — leading Cornelius Kemboi and Nicholas Kimeli in pursuit of glory.
It promises to be a tantalising race with the presence of a star-studded line-up including Olympics 10,000m silver medalist Berihu Aregawi of Ethiopia, Switzerland’s Dominic Lobalu and Belgium’s Isaac Kimeli.
The men’s 3000m steeplechase also offers a chance for the Kenyan trio of Amos Serem, Abraham Kibiwot and Wilberforce Kones to gain their pound of flesh from two-time Olympics champion Soufiane El Bakkali.
The Moroccan continues to be a thorn in Kenyans heart, having won the Olympics title in 2021 in Tokyo, the first time the country had relinquished a race that was its staple.
Since then, Bakkali has gone on to win two world titles (in Oregon and Budapest), topping it off with his second Olympics title in Paris.
A win for any of the Kenyan trio will go a long way in proving that the Moroccan is beatable and that the steeplechase crown can in the near future return to its rightful place.
