Kipyegon and Gathimba in action as gold rush begins
Faith Kipyegon crosses the finish line to win the women's 5000m final during the Kenyan trials for the World Championships on July 7, 2023 at Nyayo National Stadium.
What you need to know:
- Omanyala exempted from men’s 100m preliminaries
- Kamais, Lobach and Jebet compete in women’s 10,000m final from 9.55pm on Saturday.
In Budapest
Kenya begins the hunt for medals at the 2023 World Athletics Championships this morning when 2018 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, Samuel Gathimba, lines up in the final of men’s 20 kilometres race walk at the spanking new National Athletics Centre here in Budapest.
Gathimba, who also won gold medal at last year’s Africa Athletics Championships held in Mauritius, will line up for the race from 9.50am (Kenyan time).
At 9.55pm, Kenya’s Irene Kamais, Grace Loibach and Agnes Jebet will race in the final of women’s 10,000m race alongside reigning champion Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia, and Ugandan duo of Peruth Chemutai and Sarah Chelangat.
Kenya’s 4x400 mixed relay team of Wiseman Were, Wycliffe Kinyamal, Kennedy Musyoki, Mercy Oketch, Maureen Thomas, and Millicent Ndoro will line up in the first heat of the competition from 12.05pm. They will come up against opponents from USA, Italy, Great Britain and Belgium in their heat.
The second heat will be held from 12.16pm. The top three teams from each heat will qualify for the final alongside the two fastest teams that finish outside the top three. The final will be held Saturday evening from 10.49pm.
Men’s 100m preliminaries will be held today from 1.30pm. Commonwealth Games 100m champion Ferdinand Omanyala has been exempted from the preliminaries alongside other top athletes in the category. He will start in the second round of the competition at 8.43pm.
Kenya will also begin her quest to reclaim men’s 3,000m steeplechase title today. In last year’s edition of the championship held in Oregon, Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali took over the world title which Conseslus Kipruto had claimed for Kenya in the 2019 edition of the games held in Doha.
Red-hot title favourite Bakkali holds both the Olympics and world titles. However he runs, he is sure to have the Kenyan athletes looking behind anxiously.
The 2028 World Under-20 silver medallist, Simon Koech of Kenya and his compatriots, Leonard Bett, and Abraham Kibiwott will also take the first step towards reclaiming men’s 3,000m steeplechase title for Kenya in the first round of the water and barriers race today from 12.35pm.
Koech, who won the national trials in a time of eight minutes and 22.55 seconds, will compete in the first heat from 12.35pm alongside Ethiopia’s Getnet Wale.
Kibiwott will compete in the second heat alongside reigning champion El Bakkali. The 2019 World Championships 3,000m silver medallist Bett will compete in the third heat that will also have 2019 and 2022 world silver medallist Lamecha Girma of Ethiopia. Girma also won silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Elsewhere, world and Olympics 1,500m champion Faith Chepng’etich Kipyegon will begin the defence of her title today from 2.26pm in the second heat of her specialty.
Edinah Jebitok will run in the first heat at 2.15pm as Nelly Chepchirchir and Purity Chepkirui compete in the third and fourth heats from 2.37pm and 2.24pm respectively.
Men’s 1,500m heats will begin at 8pm Saturday night, with Reynold Kipkorir competing from 8.02pm alongside Norway’s Jacob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr of the United Kingdom.
The 2019 world champion Timothy Cheruiyot will compete in the second heat from 8.11pm, as Abel Kipsang competes in the fourth heat from 8.30pm.
