By Dennis Okeyo:
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Thursday, May 30th 2019 at 00:15 GMT +3 | AthleticsWorld champions Hellen Obiri, Elijah Manangoi and two-time Diamond League Trophy winner Timothy Cheruiyot will lead Kenyans at the third stop of IAAF Diamond League meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, tonight.
All eyes will be on Obiri in women’s 5,000m who is coming off after winning gold at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in March and who claimed an impressive victory over 3000m in Doha earlier this month.
Obiri will be up against her compatriots, Agnes Tirop, the world 10,000m bronze medalist and Margaret Chelimo, who placed fifth in the 5,000m world championship in London, Caroline Chepkoech and Lilian Kasait. Other challengers include Yasemin Can of Turkey and Ethiopia's Fantu Worku.
Manangoi, world 1500m champion, longs for a second victory after an impressive victory in Doha, where he outsprinted Kenyan compatriot and training mate Cheruiyot in Doha.
The duo will be joined by fast-rising world under-20 1500m champion George Manangoi, Elijah’s younger brother.
Kenyans will face opposition from three Norwegian Ingebrigtsen brothers – Henrik, Filip and Jakob, the European 1500m and 5000m champion.
Also in the mixed is Ethiopia’s Samuel Tefera, who set the world indoor 1500m record in Birmingham earlier this year at 3:31.0.
South Africa's Caster Semenya, the two-time 800-meter Olympic champion from South Africa, Kenyan Olympics bronze medalist Margaret Nyairera and Burundian Francine Niyonsaba will miss following the new track and field rule that restricts testosterone levels. USA’s Ajee Wilson and Nelly Jepkosgei of Kenya are the star attractions at the two-lap event.
World under-20 10,000m Rhonex Kipruto will lineup 10,000m, a non-Diamond League event with the biggest name at the start line is Ethiopia’s Olympic 5,000m bronze medalist Hagos Gebriwhet, who makes his first attempt at the 25-lap distance.
The 25-year-old finished third in Shanghai meet and his faces Rhonex who placed sixth in the IAAF World cross country Championships earlier in the year and world half marathon fourth-placed Jemal Yimmer Mekonnen of Ethiopia.
Elsewhere, the men’s 800m, non-Diamond league features Poland’s Marcin Lewandowski, Kenya’s Michael Saruni, Australian duo Peter Bol and Joseph Deng, alongside Sweden’s Andreas Kramer. Stockholm is the third meeting of this year’s IAAF Diamond League, a 14-meeting series in which athletes earn points throughout the first 12 meetings to earn qualification for two final winner-takes-all meetings: Zurich on August 29 and Brussels on September 6.
British star Laura Muir targets a win in women’s 1500m, another non-Diamond League event. The 26-year-old is the quickest in the field by several seconds with her PB of 3:55.22 but was beaten into third at the Westminster Mile in London last weekend
Kenyans in Stockholm Diamond league meeting
Women’s 5000m 9:30pm
Hellen Obiri
Lilian Kasait
Caroline Chepkoech
Agnes Tirop
Margaret Chelimo
Gloria Kite
Women’s 800m 10:15pm
Nelly Jepkosgei
Men’s 1500m 10:40pm
Timothy Cheruiyot
Elijah Manangoi
George Manangoi
Bethwel Birgen
Charles Simotwo
Timothy Sein
Men’s 10,000m non-Diamond league race
Rhonex Kipruto
Gevin Kerich
Kevin Kiptum
Isaac Kipsang
