Wanyonyi and Arop clash in repeat of Olympics 800m final
Freshly-minted Olympics 800 metres champion, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, renews rivalry with Olympics silver medalist Marco Arop of Canada on Thursday night in Lausanne Diamond League in Switzerland.
Lausanne Diamond League, which is the 11th competition in the 15-leg Wanda Diamond League Series, will take place at Lausanne’s Stade Olympique de la Pontaise, and will feature a total nine Olympians in various categories.
The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising 15 of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top-tier of the World Athletics one-day meeting competitions. The inaugural season was held in 2010. The series is sponsored by Chinese multinational conglomerate Wanda Group.
On August 10, Wanyonyi won gold medal at the Paris Olympics in one minute, 41.19 seconds ahead of Arop (1:41.20) and Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati (1:41.50).
It was Wanyonyi’s first gold medal in a major championship, the 20-year-old having claimed silver medal at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary behind Arop.
Though the race doesn’t count for points in the series, the two are expected to run a competitive race which will be a repeat of what was witnessed at the 800m final about 11 days ago in Paris.
Gabriel Tual (1:41.61) from France, Spanish Mohamed Attaoui (1:42.04), USA’s Bryce Hoppel (1:41.67) are some of the top athletes who will feature in the race.
In men’s 1,500m race, Kenya’s sole representative, Brian Komen, who was also a finalist at the Olympics has a personal best of 3:28.80. He comes up against Olympics champion Cole Hocker (3:27.65) of USA, Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen (3:26.73), among other top contenders.
Africa 10,000m champion, Janeth Chepngetich, will compete in the 3,000m alongside her compatriot Margaret Akidor who has a personal best of 8:29.88.
They will come up against a strong Ethiopian delegation of Medina Eisa (8:41.42), Gebreselama Tsigie (8:59.20), Aynadis Mebratu (8:30.99), Ejgayehu Taye (8:19.52), Diribe Welteji and Hirut Meshesha.
Olympics 800m bronze medalist, Mary Moraa, will feature in her specialty where she will also be seeking to run an impressive race after securing a podium position in Paris.
