Kemboi, Kiprop, Sum, Cheruiyot in Doha tests

Having impressed at home at the onset of the track season Ezekiel Kemboi, the Olympics titleholder and former Olympics and three-time world champion, Asbel Kiprop will take on stellar fields at the opening IAAF Diamond League meeting in Doha on Friday poised to make an early statement of intent.

Vivian Cheuiyot, the four-time track world champion and Eunice Sum, who lost her women 800m world title in China last summer are also among a slew of Kenyan distance running talent that is keen to make a resounding start to their outdoor campaign in a season where the 2016 Rio Olympics will ice the cake.

Kiprop is undoubtedly the man to beat for anyone harbouring ambition to win the men 1500m title at the Summer Games in Brazil and Doha gives him the international stage to lay down a marker to his rivals at the classic race.

“Today was about winning for the Presidential Escort Team as I prepare for Doha Diamond League and I feel that my body is picking the training well,” Kiprop said after taking the Kenya Police title in 3:40.2 in Nairobi on April 23.

A week before in the even more punishing elevation of Eldoret, he ran the impressive 1:44.6 over two laps, the fastest mark over the distance in the world thus far this year in an indicator of the imposing shape he is bringing to Doha.

“I’m happy to make the 800m semi-finals. My target for the season is to win back the Olympics title. It’s too early to think about Rio but I’m trying my best to be in shape,” the Daegu, Moscow and Beijing world champion said a week earlier.

Doha organisers assembled another stellar line-up which features the Kenyan trio of 2008 Olympic champion Kiprop, 2015 World Championships runner-up Elijah Motonei Manangoi and perennial speedster Silas Kiplagat.

Kiprop is the fastest of the trio courtesy of his 3:26.69 performance in Monaco last year, the third fastest performance ever.

A two-time winner here, Kiprop is the meeting record holder at 3:29.18, the fastest ever performance in the month of May.

Manangoi, 23, with a personal best is 3:29.67, was a surprise second behind Kiprop in Beijing last year, while Kiplagat, winner in Doha in 2012 and the fifth fastest ever with a time of 3:27.64, has not missed a World Championships or Olympic final since 2011. His best accolade is a silver medal from 2011 in Daegu.

With national pride on the line, they’ll be backed up by Robert Biwott, who brings a 3:30.10 career best to the line, Bethwell Birgen (3:30.77) and Vincent Kibet (3:31.96).

 

Ethiopian Aman Wote (3:29.91), the 2014 World Indoor Championships silver medallist, will lead the opposition.

-Kemboi vs Birech-

Ezekiel Kemboi lead Zablon Chumba in the 1500m race during the Athletics Kenya 6th Track and Field meet in Eldoret County on April 14, 2016. Photo/Sylvanus Kipkosgei/www.Sportpicha.com.
Ezekiel Kemboi lead Zablon Chumba in the 1500m race during the Athletics Kenya 6th Track and Field meet in Eldoret County on April 14, 2016. Photo/Sylvanus Kipkosgei/www.Sportpicha.com.

Kemboi and his young compatriot, Jairus Birech, who last year won his second successive Diamond Race Trophy, lead another strong 3000m steeplechase field.

Kemboi, who triumphed at the 2004 and 2012 Olympic Games, captured his fourth straight world title in the event last year after three successive world silver medal finishes. T

he 33-year-old, whose career best of 7:55.76 ranks him No. 6 all-time, will be gunning for a fourth win in Doha after victories in 2009, 2010 and 2014.

Birech meanwhile is a rising force who took the event by storm in 2014 when he won the African and Continental Cup titles and nabbed victories at six out of seven Diamond League meetings.

The only series title that eluded the 23-year-old that year was Doha.

Birech, who finished fourth at last year’s World Championships, brings a personal best of 7:58.41 from 2014 to the Qatari capital to rank No. 10 all-time.

Brimin Kipruto, the 2008 Olympic and 2015 world bronze medallist and African record holder, also returns gunning for his first victory in Doha.

Kipruto clocked 7:53.64 in Monaco in 2011, missing Qatari Saif Saaeed Shaheen’s world record by a scant 0.01 seconds.

Also in the field is his namesake Conseslus Kipruto, a former world youth and world junior champion who collected silver medals at the last two World Championships –both before his 21st birthday.

The meeting record of 7:56.58, set by Paul Kipsiele Koech in 2012. He too is in the field.

Hoping to break the Kenyan juggernaut are the quick Moroccan pair of Brahim Taleb (8:07:02 PB) and Hamid Ezzine (8:09.72).

Eunice Sum, the 2013 world champion and last year’s world bronze medallist, will command the spotlight in the women’s 800m. The 27-year-old Kenyan improved her career best to 1:56.99 last season and this year will be gunning for a fourth straight Diamond Race Trophy.

Among her chief rivals will be Caster Semenya of South Africa, the 2009 world champion and reigning Olympic silver medalist who appears to be back in top form after three off-peak seasons.

-Ayana vs Cheruiyot-

Eunice Sum (C) former World 800m champion lead pack during the finals of the Athletics Kenya 6th Track and Field meet at Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret County on April 16, 2016. Photo/Sylvanus Kipkosgei/www.Sportpicha.com.
Eunice Sum (C) former World 800m champion lead pack during the finals of the Athletics Kenya 6th Track and Field meet at Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret County on April 16, 2016. Photo/Sylvanus Kipkosgei/www.Sportpicha.com.

One of the meeting’s most anticipated head-to-head showdowns pits Almaz Ayana, the 5000m winner at the World Championships in Beijing last year, against Vivian Cheruiyot, who returned from maternity leave last season to strike world gold in the 10,000m.

Cheruiyot’s triumph in Beijing was the fifth at a World Championships for the 32-year-old Kenyan whose previous season-long consistency on the track was rewarded with Diamond Race Trophies in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Meanwhile, Ayana, 24, is the Ethiopian national record holder in the 3000m, her 8:22.20 set last season ranking her 11th fastest of all-time.

Finishing second in that race was another Kenyan, Mercy Cherono, who returns to Doha as the fastest woman in the field, courtesy of her 8:21.14 run behind Obiri in the thrilling 2014 contest. Cherono, 24, was fifth in the 5000m at last year’s World Championships and in 2014 lifted the Diamond Race Trophy in the event.

The quality field also includes Ethiopian Gelete Burka (8:25.92 PB), the 2015 World Championships silver medallist in the 10,000m. Kenyan Viola Kibiwot (8:24.41 PB), fourth in the Beijing 5000m last summer, will also be on the start line.

-Material from IAAF used to compile this report

Tags:

Elijah Manangoi athletics Doha Eunice Sum IAAF Diamond League Asbel Kiprop Ezekiel Kemboi Jairus Birech

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