NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 23 – Barely two weeks after the curtains came down on the Commonwealth Games and the World Under 20 Championships, Kenyan athletes will once again be in action at the Lausanne Diamond League in Switzerland on Friday.
Abraham Kibiwot (3000m steeplechase), Timothy Cheruiyot and Abel Kipsang (1500m), Margaret Chelimo (3000m) and Amos Serem (3000m steeplechase) will be hoping to come away victorious in what is the third last leg of the top-tier World Athletics one-day meet.
Commonwealth champion Kibiwot will be relishing the chance to exert revenge on Olympic and world champion Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco who comes into this race as the top favourite, having clinched the world title in Oregon in July.
On that occasion, Kibiwot finished outside the podium places as countryman – 2019 World Champion Conseslus Kipruto – clinched Kenya’s only medal in third place.
-Dwindling fortunes in steeplechase-
The country’s dwindling fortunes in the 3,000m steeplechase – a race in which the country has dominated for approximately 53 years – has been one of the talking points of its underwhelming performance in the long-distance races in Oregon.
Kibiwot, who later timed 8:11.15 to redeem himself with gold at the Club Games in Birmingham, will be keen to further sanitise the country’s soiled image as a powerhouse in the 3000m steeplechase.
He will be joined in this quest by Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Serem, Lawrence Kipsang and Wilberforce Kones.
Also standing between the quartet and a chance at glory is the Ethiopian duo of Olympic and world silver medalist Lamecha Girma and Getnet Wale – who won the 2019 edition of the Diamond League series in the men’s 3000m steeplechase.
-Cheruiyot out to seek redemption-
For Olympic 1500m silver medalist Cheruiyot, 2022 is a year he would want to forget as injury woes have continually affected his performance on the track.
In Oregon, he lost his world title to Great Briton Jake Wightman with a whimper, finishing a disappointing sixth after losing momentum at the last bend of the race.
In Birmingham, he would have clinched gold but for a last-second surge from Australian Oliver Hoare who went home with the Commonwealth title as Cheruiyot settled for silver.
The Lausanne meet provides Cheruiyot with the chance to get his pound of flesh from Hoare as well as Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigsten – the man who denied him the Olympic title in Tokyo and clinched bronze in Oregon.
Another Kenyan hoping for a podium place in the same race is World Indoor 1500m bronze medalist Kipsang who fell out of the podium places in Oregon and Birmingham.
The African 1500m champion will be keen to finish the year on the same note he began when he claimed his first career medal at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
-Chelimo eyes glory in 3000m-
The women’s 3000m also promises to be a crackling affair as world 10,000m bronze medalist Chelimo comes up against Olympic 5,000m and 10,000m champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands as well as Burundian Francine Niyonsaba.
Oregon was a nightmare outing for the Dutchwoman who, after taking Tokyo by storm, could not do better than sixth and fourth-place finishes in the women’s 5000m and 10,000m respectively.
Lausanne will be a chance for Hassan to get her groove back and to revenge against Chelimo, who clinched bronze ahead of her in the finals of the women’s 10,000m at the World Championships.
Going into Oregon, many bookmakers had Niyonsaba as one of the favourites to inherit Hellen Obiri’s 5000m world title, having beaten the Kenyan at the season-ending Zurich Diamond League to win the trophy in 2021.
However, a stress fracture dashed Niyonsaba’s dreams of a world title and the 2016 Olympic 800m silver medalist will want to pick up from where she left off with her performances in the Diamond League.
It promises to be a battle royale in Switzerland.
