World and Olympic 800 metres champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi could earn up to $210,000 (about Sh27.3 million) from the 2026 Diamond League Final this weekend and the inaugural 2026 World Athletics Ultimate Championship next weekend.
Winners at the Diamond League Final tomorrow and Saturday in Brussels will each pocket $60,000 (Sh7.8m).
Fourteen Kenyans will compete in seven events at the Diamond League Final, namely, men’s and women’s 3,000m steeplechase, men’s 800m, men’s and women’s 1,500m, men’s 5,000m and men’s javelin.
The Kenyan contingent, usually large at the annual series’ grand finale, was depleted after the withdrawal of World and Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon and Africa’s fastest man Ferdiand Omanyala due to injuries, and world 800m champion Lilian Odira, who cited illness.
Each winner at the inaugural $10 million (Sh1.3 billion) World Athletics Ultimate Championship, set for September 11 to 13 in Budapest, will go home a whopping $150,000 richer.
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
The payout at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship is the richest in the history of World Athletics track and field competitions.
Only reigning World Champions, Olympic gold medallists, and Diamond League Final winners are eligible to compete at the Ultimate Championships, together with the top ranked athletes in their respective disciplines
Wanyonyi, who is fresh from pocketing $60,000 (Sh7.8 million) for his 1,000m world record run at the Monaco Diamond League, could get Sh7.8m if he seals his sixth consecutive Diamond League Trophy in the two-lap race.
Wanyonyi is the only Kenyan already guaranteed a spot at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship following the withdrawal of Kipyegon and Beatrice Chebet, the Olympic and world 10,000m and 5,000m champion.
Kenya’s 4x400m mixed relay team qualified for the only two relay events at the lucrative Ultimate Championship.
However, the other Kenyans must win their respective races at the Diamond League final to earn a place in the Budapest showdown meet.
800m Olympic and World Champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi during an interview with NTV at 2-Running Athletics Club in Chepterit, Nandi County on October 08, 2025.
Photo credit: Jared Nyataya | Nation Media Group
They could also get a berth by posting good results tomorrow and Saturday to improve their world rankings.
The Diamond League Final prize money covers the top nine finishers. The ninth placed finisher in each discipline will get $500 (Sh 65,000).
All competitors at the Ultimate Championship will earn prize money, with the 16th and last placed athlete pocketing $2,000 (Sh260,000).
Wanyonyi sits pretty at the top of the men’s 800m standings in the Diamond League with 36 points, having run a world lead 1:41.76 in Zurich on Wednesday last week.
It was his third Diamond League meet victory this season after Lausanne (800m) and Monaco (1,000m). He finished in second place in Rabat and Oslo and fourth in London.
Kenya's Emmanuel Wanyonyi celebrates with his national flag after winning gold in the men's 800m at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on September 20, 2025.
Photo credit: Reuters
Wanyonyi, 22, looks to have peaked at the right time and will need all his guile to see off a formidable foe in the frame of Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati, who pushed the Kenyan all the way in Switzerland.
David Rudisha’s world 800m record of 1:40.91 from his 2012 London Olympic Games victory has been on Wanyonyi’s mind.
Defending Diamond League champion, Faith Cherotich, fresh from her 8:55.82 victory in Zurich, will renew her rivalry with 2020 Tokyo Olympic champion Peruth Chemutai from Uganda and 2024 Paris Olympic champion, Winfred Yavi of Bahrain, in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase tomorrow.
The 2019 world champion Timothy Cheruiyot, Phanuel Koech and Boaz Kiprugut will compete in the men’s 1,500m final tomorrow also.
On Saturday, the Kenyan trio of world bronze medallist Edmund Serem, who is fresh from winning the Commonwealth Games title in Scotland, 2023 Diamond League winner Simon Koech and Wilberforce Kones will go for glory in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase.
World 1,500m silver medallist Dorcas Ewoi is a lone ranger in the women’s 1,500m final, with 2022 world 5,000m silver medallist Jacob Krop, world 1,500m bronze medallist Reynold Kipkorir Cheruiyot and Cornelius Kemboi battling in men’s 5,000m.
