There are seven athletes in Kenya’s 800m team at the 33rd Olympic Games in Paris, France: three women and four men.
Kenya aims to maintain and further its dominance over the distance where it has won a gold medal in every edition since 2008.
The country’s flag-bearers are two-time Commonwealth Games champion Wycliff Kinyamal, World silver medalist Emmanuel Wanyonyi, African champion Alex Ng’eno Kipng’etich, and Koitatoi Kidali.
After Emmanuel Korir, the 2020 champion, and Ferguson Cheruiyot, the silver medallist, were eliminated from the Olympic trials, none of the Kenyan quartet in this year’s team had ever competed in Olympic Games before.
Wanyonyi, who is the youngest of all at just 19 years old, has been in incredible form this year.
He won the continental tour of the Kip Keino Classic in April, then dominated the third diamond league stop in Morocco.
Later, he won the national Olympic trials in June, setting the third-fastest time in history in the two-lap race 1:41.70.
The former under-20 world champion lowered his personal best to 1:41.58 by finishing second at the Monaco Diamond League, to top off an already impressive feat.
Kinyamal, who is 27 years old, placed second in the Olympic trials behind Wanyonyi.
He also placed second in the Diamond Leagues in Xiamen, Suzhou, and Marrakech.
Glyn Kirk | AFP
The athlete from Transmara set a new personal record at the Olympic trials, coming in second in 1:42.50, and then dropped the mark by 42 seconds at the Monaco Diamond League.
Along with competing in the 2022 world championship final, Kinyamal was also a member of the 4x400m relay squad that was eliminated in the Budapest, Hungary, 2023 world championship heats.
Alex Ngeno Kipngetich recorded a time of 1:43.47 to finish fourth at the Olympic trials.
He also placed fourth at the Xiamen Diamond League.
He participated in two World Championships, in 2019 and 2023, but lost both of them in the semifinals.
The 23-year-old’s career started in 2018 when he won the world under-20 silver medal and then another silver in the Africa under-20 championship in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, a year later.
He also won silver at the All Africa Games in March this year before winning the African title in Cameroon in June.
Koitatoi Sidali, 21, is the second-youngest member of the men’s team traveling to Paris.
He qualified after placing third in the 1:46.22 Olympic trials held in Nyayo in June.
This will be his first big championship representing the country.
Catch all the action live and exclusively on KBC channel 1, starting this Friday and running through 11th of next month.
