The fourth round of the 2024 Diamond League will be underway today on Sunday, May 19, and three Kenyan runners are among the athletes who will be lining up for the men’s 800m at Stade de Marrakech in Marrakesh, Morocco.
The three, Emmanuel Kipkurui Korir, Wycliffe Kinyamal and Emmanuel Wanyonyi, 19, all at different levels of running careers and with various honours in the world of athletics, will be hopefully going for gold as they race each other in what is considered the most anticipated and competitive events of that Diamond League.
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Born June 15, 1995, Korir is an Olympic 800m medalist and a World champion and has won the Diamond League Finals three times.
The two-lap event will be a race of the beasts as on his side, Kinyamal is a six-time Diamond League meeting winner and has won the Commonwealth Games twice.
Wanyonyi, the youngest of the Kenyan athletes in the men’s 800m category, is a World 800m silver medallist, a world U20 champion and a world record-holder after he smashed the 3:56.13 One Mile record set by USA’s Hobbs Kessler when he clocked 3 minutes,54.5 sec at the adizero Road to Records event in Herzogenaurach, Germany, in October 2023.
Korir, Kinyamal and Wanyonyi, also a recipient of the Rising Star honour at the World Athletics Awards last year, are expected to lead most of the way in the race as they compete against other renowned athletes, including French middle-distance runner Yanis Meziane who is a European U23 champion, Tshepiso Masalela of Botswana and Great Britain’s Ben Pattison, a bronze medal winner in World Championships and Commonwealth Games, among others.
Eyes are especially on Wanyonyi, who, in a recent interview at his training ground in Kapsabet, Nandi County, said he is focusing much more on the upcoming Olympics, looking forward to improving his Personal Best.
“Kenya is very competitive. Of course, in 800m, it is very competitive for me. But I like competition. I like to compete. So, I need to focus my training – to get on the team for the track at the Olympics is very tough. I need to train well, I need to focus and improve my time, my PB.
“The Olympics this year, it’s a lot of pressure for me. Everyone trains for the Olympics, so I expect this year’s Olympics to be very tough for me. I need to train. I need to commit.”
