In Paris
A stellar Kenyan cast is expected to stage what promises to be a memorable Diamond League play at the Charlety Stadium on Friday night, the key actresses and actors led by freshly crowned world 1,500 metres record holder Faith Kipyegon and fast-rising Commonwealth 100 metres champion Ferdinand Omanyala.
Both are playing their cards close to their chests, Kipyegon taking on a stellar field in the 5,000 metres that includes Ethiopia’s world record holder Letesenbet Gidey and Omanyala up against American “beast” Noah Lyles, the world 200 metres champion, inter alia .
The summer in Paris is warming up and the heat provides just the condition Omanyala hopes for as he chases his first Diamond League win on only his third outing in the race that blasts off at 10:12pm local time (11:12pm Kenyan time).
Despite a slow start off the blocks in Florence, Italy, a week ago, Africa record holder Omanyala switched on the after-burners in zero wind to finish second in 10.05 seconds behind American world champion Fred Kerley (9.94).
This after finishing third with an identical time in Rabat days earlier behind Kerley (9.94) and South Africa’s Akani Simbine (9.99).
“Florence was cold and I usually don’t like cold conditions and that’s why I took off a bit slow,” Omanyala told Nation Sport in reference to his rather slow reaction off the blocks in the Italian race.
“But since we arrived here it has been warm and the forecast for the race time is good so it’s a good sign.”
He held a training session Thursday morning and chilled out in the afternoon as Lyles did the opposite, spending the evening at the Charlety going through his rituals.
“I’m expecting a fast time… that’s all I want to do,” he offered, preferring not to discuss anything to do with Lyles, or indeed his other opponents who include Italy’s injury-plagued Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs (if he shows up), Jamaica’s 2011 world champion Yohan Blake, USA’s 2018 World Indoor Championships bronze medalist Ronnie Baker and Botswana’s junior world record holder Letsile Tebogo.
Omanyala, with a personal best time of 9.77 seconds, which is also the Africa record, is the fastest in the field that also features Azamati Benjamin (Ghana) and Mouhamadou Fall (France), with the Kenyan designated to launch from Lane Six and Lyles on Lane Four, Jacobs tucked between them on Lane Five and Blake on Lane Three.
“This race should have been my third of the season, but it ended up being my comeback race. I wanted to make sure that all my physical problems were behind me,” the Italian Olympic champion said at the pre-meet press conference on Thursday.
“This race will be ideal to launch my season and achieve the goals I've set myself. The world gold medal is the only one missing from my list of achievements.
“This long absence has only increased my motivation. The most important thing for me is to feel good and to get out on the track to put into practice the work I've been doing every day.”
Lyles, who captured the world title on home soil in Eugene last year, is equally upbeat.
“I feel really good and I can't wait to race tomorrow (Friday) evening. I know exactly what I need to do when I'm at the start of a race.
“I've made a lot of progress over the last year, even after winning the 200m world title. It's very exciting because I can feel that the big times are just around the corner.
“In the 100m, I know I still have to improve in the first part of the race. That's one of the reasons why I took part in so many indoor 60m events.”
Omanyala will be psychologically set for tonight as he has defeated Jacobs over 60 metres indoors this season, and at the Atlanta City Games over 150 metres last month, he was ahead of Lyles at the 100m mark, giving him some hope over the American 200m specialist.
Omanyala has been training in Italy ahead of tonight’s big race and rues the fact that his low budget hasn’t afforded him the luxury of tagging along an all-important cast of backroom staff, a largesse Lyles displayed at Thursday’s training session.
“If I could move around with my coach, physio and team it could be much better… This is high-end racing and your body needs to be checked all the time, especially as this is the first time that I’m racing back-to-back in the Diamond League,” he reacted.
Another record for Global?
The 29-year-old has been the star attraction in Paris since her arrival following the amazing race in Florence where she mutilated Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba’s eight-year-old record of three minutes, 50.07 seconds with an astonishing 3:49.11, even after the pacemakers had been detailed to conjure up a 3:54 pace.
Tonight, she races in only her third 5,000 metres on the circuit, the two previous races both having been run in 2015, the last one here in Paris.
The script has been set for Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey, also the world 10,000m record holder, to break her own world record (14:06.62), with Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech also in the mix, as the designated pacemaker.
Kenya's fresh 1,500 metres world record holder Faith Kipyegon (left) trains with Uganda's 2019 800 metres world champion Halima Nakaayi (second left), Kenya's steeplechase world record holder Beatrice Chepkoech and Commonwealth 800 metres champion Wycliffe Kinyamal at the Charlety Stadium in Paris ahead of Friday's Diamond League meeting.
Photo credit: Elias Makori | Nation Media Group
Kipyegon, Gidey and Chepkoech are all in the Netherlands’ Global Sports Communication stable and will be reading from the same script.
Interestingly, when Gidey broke the 5,000m world record last October at the specially-organised NN World Record Day at Valencia’s Estadia del Turia (where Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei also broke the 10,000m record, running 26:11.00), she was paced by Chepkoech.
But insiders feel Kipyegon could stun all and go for the world record herself, given her current form.
But she won’t be dragged into this debate, certainly drained by the record run in Florence.
“I feel happy and excited… it was always in my mind that one day, one time, I will break that (1,500m) world record. I didn’t know it would come this early in the season and I thank God I did it and I’ve left a legacy to motivate the young girls.
“I’m now looking forward to the 5,000 metres tomorrow (tonight),” she told Nation Sport at the Charlety Stadium ahead of a final training session yesterday.
“I’m looking forward to just running a beautiful race and to enjoy the event… The 5,000 metres is 12 laps, it’s not three laps (like the 1,500m) and I’m looking forward to just having fun.
“I know there are very strong ladies in the 5,000 metres and I’m just gonna follow them and see what happens at the finish line.”
For Kipyegon, “see what happens at the finish line” could well portend another record to add onto her stellar career!
Kenya's Faith Kipyegon reacts as she wins the Women's 1500m event, setting a new world record of 3:49.11, during the Wanda Diamond League 2023 Golden Gala on June 2, 2023 at the Ridolfi stadium in Florence, Tuscany.
Photo credit: Filippo Monteforte | AFP
Elsewhere, there will be a strong Kenyan representation in the men’s 800m with new kid on the block Emmanuel Wanyonyi duelling with Olympic champion Emmanuel Korir and Commonwealth title holder Wycliffe Kinyamal in the night’s final race at 11.51pm Kenyan time.
“We are taking it one day at a time… there’s still a lot of time to go ahead of Budapest (World Championships),” Korir said Thursday.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma is eyeing the steeplechase world record of 7:53.63 set by Kenya-born Qatari Saif Saaeed Shaheen in Brussels in 2004 and will be up against Kenyans Abraham Kibiwott, Amos Serem and Benjamin Kigen.
Girma, double world silver medallist and also second at the Tokyo Olympics, is the only sub eight-minute athlete in the field that will be paced by Kenya’s Lawrence Kemboi and Spain’s El Mehdi Aboujanah.
In the rarely-run two-mile race, Norway’s in-form world and Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen will be targeting the world record of 7:58.61 set by Kenya’s Daniel Komen in July, 1997, in Hechtel (Belgium).
Komen is the only person to have covered the 3,218 metres distance in under eight minutes.
In the women’s 400m, world and Olympic 400m hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will open her season in the flat, indicating she could make a season away from the hurdles.
“I'm very happy to be launching my 400 m season in Paris. My coach wants to see where I'm at over this distance. I trust him. For me, the challenge is to run well tomorrow evening and then we'll see about the rest of the season,” she said on Thursday.
“I don't know if I'm going to take part in any 400m hurdles races this year. It's a very interesting exercise to run these two distances because they're so different. I think the 400m will be good for me to gain speed for the 400m hurdles. It also gets me out of my comfort zone.”
Diamond League schedule (Kenyan times):
11.32pm: 3,000m steeplechase (men)
