19 Kenyans line up for title deciders at Zurich meeting

Faith Kipyegon

Kenya's Faith Kipyegon crosses the finish line to win the 1500m Women event at the Wanda Diamond League athletics meeting at the Louis II Stadium in Monaco on August 10, 2022.
 

Photo credit: Valery Hache | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Chepng’etich, who has been in top form this year will be seeking to end her season in style despite missing the world record time narrowly during the Monaco Diamond League meeting last month where she clocked a personal best of 3:50.37.
  • Cheruiyot takes on compatriot World Indoor bronze medallist Abel Kipsang, Olympic 1,500m champion, Jakob Ingebrigtsen from Norway and Commonwealth Games 1, 500m champion Oliver Hoare of Australia.

Nineteen Kenyan will compete in eight of the 32 finals on the cards  Wednesday and Thursday as the 2022 Diamond League season comes to an end at the Weltklasse Zurich, in Switzerland.

Unlike last season when two finals were held in Brussels and Zurich, this season that has featured 12 meetings from May to September, culminates with one final at the Swiss capital.

All 32 champions will be crowned during the two-day event, where Diamond trophies and top cash prizes of $30,000 (Sh3.6million).

The winners will earn wildcard entries to the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary next year.

Kenyan athletes will compete in middle and long distance race.

Three Kenyans will be defending their titles, Olympic and world champions Faith Chepng’etich (1,500m) and Emmanuel Korir (800m), and Olympic and world 1,500m silver medallist Timothy Cheruiyot (1,500m).

The two-lap and metric mile races will be held Thursday where Commonwealth Games champions Mary Moraa (800m ) and Abraham Kibowott (3,000m steeplechase will be in action.

If the Kenyans are to win the eight finals, they will pocket Sh28.8million in total.

World silver medallists Jacob Krop and Beatrice Chebet will open Kenya’s account in the men and women’s 5,000m finals on the opening day where the first six titles will be secured on Sechselautenplatz – one of the city’s most famous squares on the shore of Lake Zurich.

A temporary track and arena will host both shot put and 5,000m finals as well as the women’s pole vault and men’s high jump.

Krop, who claimed silver in 5,000m at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, United States in July and went on to settle for bronze at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in August, has two compatriots in the 5,000m final.

They are Commonwealth Games 5,000m silver medallist Nicholas Kimeli, 23, and Cornelius Kemboi.

They will be out to reclaim the 5,000m title a Kenyan last won in 2014 through Caleb Mwangangi.

Krop, 21, is fresh from running a world lead of 12 minutes and 45.71 seconds in Brussels on Friday.

He moved to sixth on the world all-time list with his victory. He beat USA’s Grant Fisher, who will also be on the start line in Zurich.

Fisher’s time of 12:46.96 was a North American record that moved him to 12th on the world all-time best list.

The Kenyan trio face a star-studded field that include the Ethiopian legion of Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega, Berihu Aregawi, Yomif Kejelcha and Haile Bekele. Aregawi won last year’s title on the city centre course.

Chebet, who claimed silver in 5,000m at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon before winning the Commonwealth Games over the same distance, is already being touted as the heir to former world champion Hellen Obiri and Vivian Cheruiyot.

Cheruiyot won the Diamond League titles back-to-back in 2010, 2011 and 2012 while Obiri is the last Kenya to win, also back-to-back in 2017 and 2018.

Chebet and World 10,000m bronze medallist Margaret Chelimo will battle the rich field that has Olympic 10,000m and 5,00m champion Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands and Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, who won the World 5,000m in Oregon four months after claiming the world indoor 1,500m.

Tsegay will be joined by compatriots Dawit Seyaum, Ejgayehu Taye, Fantu Worku and Hawi Feysa.

Chepng’etich (1,500m) will be a lone ranger in the 1,500m tomorrow where she will face familiar foes from Oregon; Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay and Briton Laura Muir, who she beat to second and third places respectively in Oregon.

Chepng’etich, who has been in top form this year will be seeking to end her season in style despite missing the world record time narrowly during the Monaco Diamond League meeting last month where she clocked a personal best of 3:50.37.

Cheruiyot takes on compatriot World Indoor bronze medallist Abel Kipsang, Olympic 1,500m champion, Jakob Ingebrigtsen from Norway and Commonwealth Games 1, 500m champion Oliver Hoare of Australia.