Cheruiyot eyes perfect show at Zurich Diamond League
World 1,500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot (left) receives a token from Commissioner General of Kenya Prisons Service Wycilffe Ogallo at the Prisons headquarters in Nairobi on August 12, 2021.
What you need to know:
- Olympic 800m champion Emmanuel Koir and Olympic 800m silver medallist, will be eying to stop Canadian Marco Arop, who beat them at Prefontaine Classic on August 21 and Lussaune on August 26 respectively.
- But Arop would find his match in Commonwealth 800m champion Wycliffe KInyamal in Paris where he finished third to Kinyamal and Rotich.
Olympic 1,500m silver medallist Timothy Cheruiyot is ready to bounce back when he defends his Diamond League 1,500m title in Zurich on Thursday.
Cheruiyiot, the back-to-back Series winner from 2017 to 2019, will be competing for the first time since the Tokyo Olympic Games where he lost to Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the final.
“I am ready for the final, which perhaps will be my last race before closing the eventful season,” said Cheruiyot, the 2019 World 1,500m champion.
To qualify for the final in Zurich, Cheruiyot reigned supreme in Doha (3:30.48), Stockholm (3:32.30) and Monaco (3:28.28-personal best) respectively.
“My main focus next year is to defend my world title and also participate in the Commonwealth Games,” said Cheruiyot, who was part of a Kenya contingent to leave Monday for the Diamond League final.
The 25-year-old Cheruiyot settled for silver behind winner Elijah Manang’oi at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia.
The 2022 World Athletics take place from July 15-24 in Oregon, United States, while the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games run from July 28 to August 8 in the United Kingdom.
The Diamond League Final will take place in one city for the first time in the series’ history in 2021, with all 32 Wanda Diamond League champions to be crowned in Zurich.
The bumper season finale will take place across two days in two different venues. The men and women’s 5,000m are among events that will be held at the Sechseläutenplatz square on the shores of Lake Zurich on Wednesday evening.
However, all other events including men and women’s 1,500m, 3,000m steeplechase, 800m, 200m and 100m will be on show at the Letzigrund Stadium Thursday night.
Letzigrund has co-hosted every single Diamond League Final since the series began in 2010.
Whoever prevails at Zürich final will become "Wanda Diamond League Champion" and not only receive prize money of 30,000 US dollars (Sh3 million), but also the coveted "Diamond Trophy".
Cheruiyot will once again take on Ingebrigtsen, who will also line up in the men's 5,000m the previous night. Also in the race are Kenyans Abel Kipsang, who finished fourth at Tokyo Olympics, despite breaking the Olympic Record in the semi-finals, Ronald Kwemoi and Charles Simotwo.
The focus in the women’s 1,500m final will definitely be the rematch between Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Chepngétich from Kenya and Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan, who claimed silver in 1,500m at the Olympics as well as gold in 10,000m and 5,000m.
Hassan beat Chepngétich to second place in Rome in June this year winning in a World Lead and Meet Record time of 3:53.63 as the Kenyan broke her own National Record in 3:53.91.
Chepngétich then went on to win in Monaco, improving her National Record to 3:51.07 on July 9 and Prefontaine Classic in 3:53.23 just after her Olympic glory.
Olympic 800m champion Emmanuel Koir and Olympic 800m silver medallist, will be eying to stop Canadian Marco Arop, who beat them at Prefontaine Classic on August 21 and Lussaune on August 26 respectively.
But Arop would find his match in Commonwealth 800m champion Wycliffe KInyamal in Paris where he finished third to Kinyamal and Rotich.
