Olympic Champions Faith Kipyegon, Beatrice Chebet, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, and Olympic bronze medalist Faith Cherotich, bagged diamond trophies on day two of the Memorial Van Damme Diamond League in Brussels, Belgium, on Saturday night.
Bragging for both Olympic and World bronze, Cherotich was crowned the 2024 Diamond League trophy winner in 3,000msc for the 1st time ,when she led from the 2,000m mark to stop the clock in 9 minutes, 2.36 seconds.
Cherotich, ‘aka’ Small Faith’ relegated the Olympic Champion Kenyan born Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi who finished 2nd in 9:02.87, as Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai settled for 3rd position.
‘Big’ Faith Kipyegon stamped her authority as the queen of the 1,500m, hitting the front in the last 300m to emerge victorious in a meeting record of 3 minutes 54.75 seconds, a record 5th Diamond trophy.
The win was an icing on the cake for the double Olympic champion and triple World champion over the distance.
Diribe Welteji of Ethiopia and Australia’s Jessica Hull followed in 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively.
Double Olympic Champion Beatrice Chebet closed her splendid season claiming victory in 5,000m in style and posting a new meeting record of 14:09.82 .
Reigning World Under-20 champion Medina Eisa of Ethiopia led her counterparts to finish 2, 3, and 4th positions, setting a new World Under-20 record of 14:21.89.
The final track event for Kenyans of the night saw the Olympic champion Emanuel Wanyonyi come from behind in the last 50m to clinch the 800m diamond trophy in 1:42.70, followed by Djamel Sedjati and Algieria, who relegated the World champion Canadian Marco Arop to 3rd place.
Wanyonyi,Cherotich,Kipyegon,Chebet,Serem, and Mary Moraa joined the other 26 discipline champions at the final stop of the 2024 Diamond League in Brussels, who were awarded a trophy, which will be accompanied by a KES 3.9 million reward and a direct ticket to the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.
It was the last track and field event for this year as the athletes now take a break from a busy summer to rejuvenate ahead of the new season, which kicks off towards the end of the year .
