Kenyan stars bite the bullet in Zurich Diamond League

Kenyan track stars had a night to forget on Thursday in Zurich, the penultimate event of 2016 Diamond League.

Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Chepng'etich, who went into the final race of the season in pole position, missed out on the big pay day as she faded to seventh to hand Briton Laura Muir, who finished second, the Diamond League Trophy and a purse of US$ 40,000 (Sh4million).

The winner of the night Shannon Rowbury from USA collected US$10,000 (Sh1million).

Women's 800m and 3,000m steeplechase races were a replica of the Rio Olympic Games with Kenyans Margaret Nyairera and Hyvin Kiyeng playing second fiddle to South Africa's Caster Semenya and Kenya-born Ruth Jebet of Bahrain respectively.

It wasn't the fastest time of the year, but a dramatic turn of events down the home straight in the women’s 1,500m produced one of the most thrilling moments of the night.

With the field paced through 800m in 2:08.10, Muir took up the front running, but was soon passed by Chepng’etich, who led with one lap to go, but hadn’t managed to shake off her British rival.

With US duo Jenny Simpson and Rowbury close behind, Muir began to close in on Chepng'etich on the final bend.

The Kenyan began to fade in the homestretch with her hopes of lifting the Diamond Trophy elapsing. Even though Muir dug in, its Rowbury who won in a season’s best of 3:57.78.

Muir, still unaware of how far behind Chepng'etich was, finished second in 3:57.85.

World Indoor 1,500m champion Sifan Hassan finished third in 3:58.43 with Simpson finishing fourth in 3:58.54. The Ethiopian duo of Dawit Seyaum and Besu Sado also finished within four minutes, with Chepng’etich crossing the line in seventh place.
Six days after breaking the World Record with a new time of 8:52.78, Jebet, who had also claimed victories in Eugene and Stockholm, went easy though with an assured performance to secure the Diamond Trophy.

Jebet was tracked by Kiyeng, the World champion, during the early stages but pulled away from her Kenyan rival over the second half of the race. After passing 2000m in 6:03.3, it was clear that Jebet was on course to break the meeting record of 9:15.23 and she did it in a majestic 9:07.00.

Kiyeng took second place – reflecting her position in the Diamond Race – in 9:10.15, while USA’s Emma Coburn completed the repeat of the Olympics podium, finishing third in 9:17.42.

Semenya achieved all of her goals for 2016, winning the Olympic title and remaining undefeated all season with an astonishing victory in 1:56.44.

Once again, the finishing order from the Olympics was repeated with Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba taking second place in 1:56.76 and Nyairera finishing third in 1:57.04.

Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet won the men's 5,000m to secure the Diamond Race.

Gebrhiwet kicked hard and began to close the gap on US steeplechaser Evan Jager, who had led with a margin of 100m.

Gebrhiwet finally passed Jager on the final bend before going on to win in 13:14.82. Olympic silver medallist Paul Chelimo from USA finished second in 13:16.51, crossing the line just ahead of Jager, who clocked 13:16.86.