NAIROBI, Kenya, May 2 – Dozens of the world’s finest athletes headlined by Kenyan Hellen Obiri are gathering in Doha to help kick off the 2019 IAAF Diamond League on Friday, which gets underway for the tenth consecutive year in the Qatari capital, and with it the chase for a piece of the series’ Sh800 million (US$8 million) prize money purse.
Among the cast assembled, which includes six reigning world champions, eight reigning Olympic champions and winners of nine 2018 Diamond Trophies, are world 5000m champion Obiri, whose star rose even higher just over a month ago at the World Cross Country Championships Aarhus 2019 where she battled to an impressive victory over the most difficult course in that event’s history.
Here, Obiri will run on more familiar and conventional turf as she returns to the city where she broke the African 3000m record in 2014, clocking 8:20.68, still the fifth fastest performance of all-time.
That was at the Qatar Sports Club stadium, home to this meeting for its previous nine editions.
This time she’ll take to the line about 13 kilometres to the southwest, at the newly-refurbished Khalifa Stadium in the city’s Aspire Zone district which in less than five months time will host the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019.
Her chief opponent is long-time rival Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia, the world 1500m record holder who has captured the last three world indoor 3000m titles. She too will be making her 2019 outdoor debut.
The pair have raced 18 times over distances from 1500 to 5000m, with Obiri holding a 10-8 lead, but over 3000m Dibaba has won three of their five meetings.
The strong field in the evening-capping event includes Beatrice Chepkoech, the world record holder in the 3000m steeplechase, and Caroline Kipkirui, the winner here last year. Both have sub-8:30 lifetime bests.
-Hot middle distance programme-
Three men figure prominently in the men’s 800m, always among the most popular events in Doha: Emmanuel Korir of Kenya, last year’s world leader at 1:42.05 and the Diamond League champion; African champion Nijel Amos of Botswana, the man who handed Korir his only defeat last season and history’s fifth fastest man; and US star Donavan Brazier, whose stellar 2019 indoor season included a 1:44.41 Area record and a world indoor 600m best of 1:13.77.
But also keep an eye on Qatari Abubaker Haydar Abdalla who sped to a 1:44.33 world lead to take the Asian title here less than two weeks ago, and master tactician Adam Kszczot of Poland, the world indoor champion.
In the men’s 3000m steeplechase, world and Olympic champion Conseslus Kipruto has been sidelined with a foot problem, putting the focus on his Moroccan rival Soufiane El Bakkali, who finished second to the Kenyan at last year’s Diamond League final in Zurich in one of the season’s most dramatic and unforgettable contests. Like most of the field, he’ll be making his 2019 debut.
The field includes Kenyans Amos Kirui, the 2016 world U20 champion and Commonwealth bronze medallist last year, and Benjamin Kigen, the winner in Rabat last year with an 8:06.19 personal best.
The women’s race is wide open on paper, with world and Olympic silver medallist Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi, 2017 world bronze medallist Ajee Wilson of the US and Kenyan Margaret Wambui, the Olympic bronze medallist, among the favourites. All will be making their season debuts.
The story in the men’s 1500m is the on-going rivalry between training partners Timothy Cheruiyot and Elijah Manangoi of Kenya.
Manangoi is the world champion but Cheruiyot was clearly the better on the circuit last year, breaking 3:30 twice before taking the Diamond League title.
