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Kip Keino Classic entrants chase glory in Morocco
Athletees Abraham Kibiwot, Ferdinand Omanyala and Reynold Cheruiyot.
The Rabat Diamond League is on tonight in the Moroccan capital and 14 Kenyans will be in action.
Of these, five are listed to compete in the sixth edition of the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi on Saturday giving them a turn around time of five days to fly back home and fine-tune for the World Athletics Continental Gold Tour meet.
The quintet are led by none other than Africa's fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala who will race in men's 100m at the 53,000-capacity Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium against a formidable field that includes his African nemises South African Akani Simbine, Botswana's in form Letsile Tebogo together with Fred Kerley of the USA.
Other Kip Keino Classic-bound Kenyan stars racing tonight are regular participant Abraham Kibiwott and Edmund Serem in men's 3,000 steeplechase, and Reynold Cheruiyot and Vincent Keter in men's 1,500
Omanyala will be competing in his third Diamond League race this season after a second-place finish in Xiamen in 10.13 seconds and ninth-place finish in Shanghai is a slowish time, by his standards, of 10.25.
After the two races in China, the African record holder represented Kenya at the World Athletics Relay Championshipsin Guangzhou, China aiding the 4x100m team to qualify for the World Athletics Championships that will be held in Tokyo, Japan in September 13-21. The 100m Kenyan record holder is determined to bounce back from last year’s disappointing performance in Nairobi where he finished in fifth place with a time of 10.03.
In an interview with Nation Sports in Rabat on Friday the former rugby player told his fans to relax as he was working on aspects of his game.
“We’ve been trying to make sure we get race model perfectly well at the Kip Keino Classic," he said.
He is currently ranked 14th in the World Athletics ranking with a season's best of 10.00 that qualified him to race at this year's World Athletics Championships.
In the 3,000m steeplechase race, Kibiwott lines up in Rabat against fast rising World Under-20 champion Serem and home boy and race favourite Soufiane El Bakkali, the fastest man in the Rabat field with a personal best of 7:56.68.
Kibiwott, who holds a PB of 8:05.51, raced in the Xiamen and Shanghai Diamond Leagues but says he was carrying a groin injury that affected his performance. He finished a disappointing seventh in both meetings.
From Rabat, the 29-year-old Kibiwott will be looking to defend his Kip Keino Classic title he won last year in a then world lead time of 8:20.54, incidentally ahead of Serem who finished second in 8:21.40.
“Competing at home is so sweet because the home crowd cheers you on and that is why I always compete in that race.
“I’m using the Rabat race seek the World Athletics Championships qualification then go back home and defending my title,” he told Nation Sports on phone from Rabat yesterday.
Kibiwott won the first edition of the Kip Keino Classic in 2020, finished to El Bakkali in 2021 before reclaiming the title in 2022.
He was second a year later before winning the race for the second time last year.
“It is a race that’s happening at home and I always want to impress because it helps me plan myself ahead of the season and this year we are all targeting the World Athletics Championships where I’m also looking forward to improve on the bronze I won at the 2023 games in Budapest,” added Kibiwott.
A big name racing tonight in the Moroccan city is reigning 800m Olympics champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi who said that he is basically out there to run a focused race admitting that he still has some work to do in the two-lap race this season.
“I’m shaping up as we head to the World Athletics Championships which is the main target,” said Wanyonyi during the press conference in Rabat.
Another big name is double Olympics champion Beatrice Chebet will compete in women’s 3,000m.
“Athletics has changed a lot and in the 5,000m race, you need to have speed and that is why I have been training 170-180km per week combined with speed sessions because it is critical in the final part of the race,” said Chebet.