Athletics

PARIS 2024: Kenya aims for more Olympic glory in 1,500m and 3,000m finals

PARIS 2024: Kenya aims for more Olympic glory in 1,500m and 3,000m finals
Timothy Cheruiyot reacts after his heat (C) NOCK

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Kenya will be hoping to bag medals in the men's 1500M finals from 9:50PM and the women's 3000M steeplechase from 10:14PM

Kenya finally arrived at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on Monday night at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Paris, after Beatrice Chebet won the gold medal in the women's 5000 metres. Faith Kipyegon settlef for silver in the same race in a dramatic night that saw her first disqualified for tussling with the Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay only to be later reinstated on the podium after a succesful appeal by Team Kenya.

A bronze medal by Mary Moraa in the women's 800 metres marked an end to what was fairly a successful night for Kenya.

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Kenya will be hoping for medals on Tuesday in the finals of the men's 1 500 metres and the women's 3 000 metres.

The gold medal eluded Kenya in both events at the Tokyo Olympics three years and the nation's prospects in both races are determined to make amends this year.

The men's 1 500 metres final will start first, with athletes taking to the track at 9:50 pm.

Timothy Cheruiyot, a silver medalist in the same race at Tokyo 2020, and Brian Komen, an Olympics debutant, carry Kenya's hopes in that event following the elimination of Reynold Kipkorir in the semifinal.

Kenya has a mixed history in the men's 1 500 metres at major championships. The performance of the nation's athletes in the even has had exhilarating highs and underwhelming since the legendary Kipchoge Keino won Kenya's first medal in the race at the historic 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. On that occasion, Keino won gold but victory eluded him four years later in Munich when he settled for silver.

Peter Rono, in 1988, ended Kenya's medal drought in the event with his victory at the Seoul Olympics.

His medal success in that event was not replicated by a Kenyan until 1996 when Stephen Kipkorir left Atlanta with a bronze medal.

The 2000s ushered in an exciting phase of Kenyan domination in the race with Noah Ng'eny first pipping the then indefatigable Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco to the gold medal at Sydney 2000. Guerrouj, who is the event's world recorder with a time of 3:26:00, was reduced to tears as he settled for silver while Kenya's Bernard Lagat got the bronze, marking it the first, and only time so far, that Kenya has produced two medalists in the race at a single edition of the Olympic Games.

At Athens 2004, Guerrouj finally had his day in the sun, winning the gold medal as Lagat upgraded his bronze medal from Sydney to silver, emulating Kipchoge Keino as the only other Kenyan with two Olympic medals in the men's 1 500 metres.

Asbel Kiprop ensured that Kenya ended that decade on a high, after his silver medal in the event in Beijing 2008 was upgraded to a gold medal in November 2009 when  after the race's initial winner, Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain, was disqualified for testing positive for the blood-booster CERA.

Kiprop's gold medal was Kenya's fourth in event but there has never been another since with Cheruiyot's silver medal at Tokyo 2020 bringing an end to medal drought that had haunted Kenya in London 2012 and Rio 2016.

It would be underestimating the task that awaits Cheruiyot and Komen on Tuesday to state that the gold medal drought in that event will come to an end tonight considering how hard the duo had laboured to earn their places in the final during the semifinal heat.

There is no denying that Cheruiyot and Komen gave to up their game tonight in order to get the better of the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigsten, reigning Olympic champion who the gold medal in Tokyo three years with a competition record time of 3:28.32, and the Briton Josh Kerr, the reigning world champion and a Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist.

Ingebrigsten and Kerr have been in a class of their own in the event and a victory for either Cheruiyot or Komen will be reminiscent of Ng'eny gold medal victory at Sydney 2000.

It is in the women's 3 000 metres steeplechase, which starts at 22:14 pm EAT, that Kenya will be hoping for a change of fortunes by winning it first ever gold medal in the event since the race became part of the athletics program in the Olympic Games at Beijing 2008.

Even though Kenya has always had a medalist in the event at every Olympic Games since the race's introduction, the gold medal has consistently proved elusive and there is great hope for the drought ending tonight as Beatrice Chepkoech, the race's world record holder, carry's the nation's aspirations for a change of history together with Faith Cherotich.

Chepkoech finished in a disappointing 7th position in the event at Tokyo 2020 as Hyvin Jepkemoi won bronze for Kenya, downgrading from the silver medal she got in Rio 2016. The Uganda Peruth Chemutai took gold in the Japanese capital and has returned to defend her title in Paris.

Winfred Mutile Yavi, a Kenyan-born Bahraini athlete who finished 10th in Tokyo 2020 has also since grown in stature and goes into the race as the reigning world champion having beaten Beatrice Chepkoech (silver) and Faith Cherotich (bronze) to the gold medal in Budapest last year.

Other than Hyvin Jepkemoi, the other Kenyans to win a medal in the event at the Olympics are Eunice Jepkorir (silver, 2008) and Milcah Chemos (bronze, 2012).

Away from the medal prospects, Wiseman Mukhobe Were will be hoping to make the finals of the men's 400 metres hurdles.

Mukhobe will feature in the semifinals of the event which is scheduled to start at 21:07 pm EAT but he will have to wait until the end of the race's repechage round heats to know which semifinal heat he will compete in and the exact time he will race for a place in the final. The repechage round of the men's 400 metres hurdles is scheduled to start at 1 pm EAT.

While Were hopes to make the final of the event, Faith Kipyegon is expected to start her defence of her 1 500 metres title with Round One heats scheduled to start at 11:05 am EAT.

Kipyegon, barely rested after competing in the women's 5 000 metres on Monday night, will be in Heat Two which starts at 11:17 am EAT.

Susan Ejore, Kenya's other representative in the race will compete first, running in Heat One which starts at 11:05 am EAT.

Nelly Chepchirchir will be in the final heat, Heat Three, which starts at 11:29 am EAT.

The first six finishers in each heat will qualify automatically for the semifinals. The remaining athletes who will manage to finish to the race will have to contest a repechage round to claim the remaining six semifinal slots.

Also starting his campaign on Tuesday, is Kenya's javelin thrower Julius Yego. Yego will be competing in Pool A with 15 other throwers. The competition in Pool A will start at 11:20 am EAT while that in Pool B will start at 12:50 pm.

To make the final, which will be on Thursday, August 8, Yego has to either throw the qualification standard of 84 metres or be among the best 12 performers overall.

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