Diamond League: High stakes as Wanyonyi, Cheruiyot & Moraa take on rivals in Lausanne
By Kiplagat Sang, August 22, 2024
Olympic gold medallist Emmanuel Wanyonyi, bronze medallist Mary Moraa and Timothy Cheruiyot will be in action on Thursday, August 22, 2024, during the Diamond League series in Luasanne, Switzerland.
After a disappointing run in the Olympics in Paris, Cheruiyot returns to action, and he will face his usual rivals, Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen and the USA’s Cole Hocker.
Ingebrigtsen missed out on a medal at that distance in Paris but went on to win the 5000m title. On the other hand, Hocker will be running with a notional target on his back as he makes a rare Diamond League appearance.
The absence of Josh Kerr of Great Britain is expected to be a big boost for his rivals, and this gives Cheruiyot a fighting chance on Thursday night.
Ingebrigtsen, 23, is coming with somewhat battered ego after finishing fourth in the 1500m and will be very keen indeed to re-assert his top dog status in an event where he lowered his European record to 3:26.73. This is just 0.73 off the 1998 world record of Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco in July, according to World Athletics.
Wanyonyi in action
In the 800m, Wanyonyi, fresh from making history in his Olympics debut, will contest a non-scoring race over two laps of the track. His winning time in Paris was 1:41.19, and this moved him to third on the world all-time list.
In Lausanne, Wanyonyi will compete against four of the five men who followed him home: silver medallist and world champion Marco Arop of Canada, whose time of 1:41.20 puts him fourth on the world all-time list; Bryce Hoppel, whose clocking of 1:41.67 earned him fourth place and a US record; fifth-placed Mohamed Attaoui of Spain; and sixth-placed Gabriel Tual, France’s European champion.
Finally, Moraa will take on Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Georgia Bell and her fellow Briton Jemma Reekie, the world indoor silver medallist, along with Uganda’s 2019 world champion Halimah Nakaayi, in the women’s 800m contest.