“Actions speak louder than words.”
Those are the words of freshly minted 1,000 metres world record holder, Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya. The 21-year-old reckons results on the track should speak better for him in his quest for his next big target, a world record in his speciality of 800m.
“I don’t want to talk about a world record in the 800m. I first want to run faster and improve my personal best time. But let me say very little about this. Actions speak louder than words,” the Olympics and world 800m champion told Nation Sport on Friday.
Wanyonyi is being modest. Running fast and improving his personal best time of 1 minute and 41.11 seconds will easily yield a world record for him, considering that he ran outside David Rudisha’s world record by 0.20 seconds almost two years ago.
Kenya's Emmanuel Wanyonyi leads Jake Wightman of Britain on his way to victory the men's 1000m race in a world record time at Monaco Diamond on July 10, 2026.
Photo credit: Reuters
Wanyonyi ran a breathtaking personal best of 1:41.11 at the Lausanne Diamond League on August 22, 2024, missing out on Rudisha’s fabled time of 1:40.91 from his 2012 London Olympic Games gold medal victory. That made Wanyonyi the second fastest man in 800m jointly with Kenyan-born Dane Wilson Kipketer.
Kipketer’s time of 1:41.11 from 1997 had stood as a world record before Rudisha obliterated it for the first time, running 1:41.09 in Berlin on August 202, 2010, and again bettering it eight days later in 1:41.09 in Rieti, Italy.
Wanyonyi, the Olympic and world 800m champion, seems to be gyrating towards the 800m world record after he erased the 27-year-old 1,000m world record by 0.13 seconds on Friday.
Wanyonyi downed Ngeny’s world record of 2:11.96 set on September 5, 1999, stopping the clock at 2:11.83 under Monaco’s evening skies. The time was also a meet as well as a Diamond League record.
After the pacesetter dropped out just before 800m in 1:45.11, Ngeny’s world record was in sight. Ngeny hit the 800m in 1:44.6.Wanyonyi easily dropped Briton Jake Wightman, who was on his shoulder as he kicked away to beat the wavelights on his way to the new world record.
The top eight all set lifetime bests. Wightman was second in 2:12.77 to move to fifth on the world all-time list with Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati third in 2:13.94. Ko Ochiai set a Japanese record of 2:15.24 to finish seventh.
“This was the first time I ran the 1.000m, and directly breaking the World Record makes me so happy. I thank the other athletes for pushing me to my limit,” said Wanyonyi, who now heads to the London Diamond League on July 18.
Wanyonyi made his grand debut in London last year, where he won with a blistering meeting record time of 1:42.00.
“I have decided to not run too much this season because I want to run very fast at the end of the season,” Wanyonyi said after winning his first race since becoming a father on June 4 this year. Wanyonyi and his partner, fellow middle-distance runner Nelly Chepchirchir, welcomed a daughter, Noellah, in June. Wanyonyi will pocket US$ 50,000 (Sh6.5million) in bonuses for breaking the world record in addition to US$ 10,000 (Sh1.3million) for his victory.
Kenyans Agnes Ng’etich (women’s 3,000m) and Simon Koech (men’s 3,000m) were also winners on the night, but world and Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon finished third in the women’s 3000m.
Ng’etich won women’s 3,000m in a meet record and world lead time of 8:08.95 as Chinese Wang Junxia’s world record of 8:06.11 survived. Ng’etich’s time is now the third fastest in history as she also smashed Gabriela Szabo’s long-standing meeting record of 8:21.42 from 2002.
Kipyegon, building momentum after a hamstring injury, finished in third place in 8:24.21.
Koech stormed to his first victory in three years, winning the men's 3,000m in 8:03.35 ahead of Japan’s Ryuji Miura, who clocked 8:10.30, while another Kenyan, Edmund Serem, finished third, timing 8:11.15.
