Sixteen of Kenya’s finest athletes will on the weekend of 16-17 September line up for bragging rights in the Wanda Diamond League Final at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, USA.
The event, set to take place at Hayward Field in Oregon will act as the season finale and bring to an end five months of world-class action across four continents this calendar year.
With it, will come a Diamond Trophy for all 32 of the 2023 Wanda Diamond League champions.
Leading Kenya’s quest will be current world record holder for the 1500 meters, mile, and 5000 meters Faith Kipyegon who will be looking to garner her career fourth Diamond League title after successes in 2017, 2021 and 2022.
The 2023 World Champion in Budapest will line up in Saturday’s 1500m final that will notably include Hirut Meshesha and Laura Muir, seeking to finish her hugely remarkable season on a high.
Another recently crowned World Champion, Mary Moraa, will also be in action in Eugene on Sunday with the aim of defending a trophy she won last season.
Alongside her will be Olympic champion Athing Mu and Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson as the closest challengers, and following her win in Budapest, where she outpaced both of them, a win could work well for the Kenyan who missed the penultimate Brussels Diamond League where she was to take part in the 400m.
Commonwealth Games champion and Africa’s fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala will also be in the men’s 100m race on Saturday, where he will look to build on a weekend win in Zagreb, while also offering revenge to World Champion Noah Lyles and Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, who all finished ahead of him in Budapest.
World record holder in the 3000m women’s steeplechase Beatrice Chepkoech will be alongside her Kenyan compatriots Faith Cherotich and Jackline Chepkoech in Saturday’s race that will also offer a stern test in the name of Bahraini Winfred Yavi who bursted to a big win in Budapest in a time of 8:54.29.
Chepkoech on the other hand is now a 2000m world record holder after cutting the tape in Zagreb last Sunday in a time of 5:47.42, that broke the long-standing record of Belgian Gesa Felicitas Krause’s of 5:52.80.
The new kid on the block in the men’s 800m seniors Emmanuel Wanyonyi will be in Sunday’s action alongside Wycliffe Kinyamal and will be seeking to improve on his silver medal in Budapest after losing out to Canadian athlete Marco Arop.
Arop will provide opposition, as will Djamel Sedjati of Algeria and USA athlete Bryce Hoppel.
Reynold Kipkorir and Abel Kipsang will round up in Saturday’s one mile (1600m) race, while the quartet of Commonwealth Games champion and 2023 World Championships bronze medalist Abraham Kibiwott, Simon Koech, Benjamin Kigen and Amos Serem will line up in the men’s 3000m steeplechase on Saturday.
Also in action in the women’s 5000m will be World Championships bronze medalist Beatrice Chebet, who will be alongside Brussels Diamond League winner Lilian Kasait in Sunday’s 5000m race.
