Wanyonyi Bags Maiden Diamond League Crown, Chebet Outdone By Record-Breaking Tsegay

Kenya’s fast rising two-lap specialist Emmanuel Wanyonyi bagged his maiden Diamond League crown on Sunday night after clocking a new personal best time of 1:42.80 to finish ahead of World Champion Marco Arop from Canada and Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati.

The 19-year-old Wanyonyi, who had to settle for silver behind Arop in the recently concluded Budapest World Championship, got the perfect response to losing the World title as he zoomed past the Canadian in the closing stages of the race.

Having played second fiddle to Arop who controlled the race from the start, Wanyonyi timed his kick to perfection as he set a new world lead and meeting record to go with his personal best, Arop and Sedjati settling for second and third after clocking 1:42.85 and 1:43.06 respectively.

Commonwealth Champion Wycliffe Kinyamal could not keep up with the top three in the race as he faded to a ninth-place finish, timing 1:46.33.

Elsewhere, Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet had to contend with a second-place finish in the women’s 5000m after failing to keep up with Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay who went on to break the world record set by Faith Kipyegon in June this year in Paris.

The 10000m World Champion was in a field of her own as she clocked 14:00.21 to take almost five seconds off the 14:05.20 Kipyegon set barely three months ago.

The win also saw the Ethiopian deny Chebet a chance of defending her Diamond League title.

Chebet, the reigning Commonwealth champion and World bronze medalist over the distance, however set a new personal best in clocking 14:05.92 ahead of Taye Ejgayehu who finished third.

Kenya’s Lilian Kasait missed out on the podium with her fourth placed finish.