All star line-up for Doha

By Feverpitch Team

Beijing Olympics champions, Brimin Kipruto and Nancy Jebet Lagat, lead an all-star cast to the Qatar Athletic Super Grand Prix meeting Friday night (tonight) as the World Athletics Tour kicks off in the Gulf State.

The lucrative Qatar Grand Prix in Doha has attracted a stellar line-up which reads like who-is-who in the 2008 outdoor season.

Kipruto, who won 3,000m steeplechase gold in the Chinese capital last year, will be a runaway favourite in the Kenyan specialist event where he lines up with the Olympic champion four years earlier in Athens, Ezekiel Kemboi, African Games champion Willy Komen and the fastest man over the year last year, Paul Kipsiele Koech.

Uganda’s Benjamin Kiplagat and Kenyan-born Tareq Mubarak Taher of Bahrain and Musa Amer Obaid of Qatar are the pthetr challengers.

Frenchman Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad, who spoilt Kenya’s steeplechase medal sweep in Beijing, will run in the 3,000m where twice world champion, Seif Saaeed Shaheen of Qatar, former Stephen Cherono of Kenya, Kenya’s own former world 5,000m champion Eliud Kipchoge, Daniel Kipchirchir Komen, Thomas Longosiwa and Mark Kiptoo, who captained Kenya’s World Cross Country Championships team to Amman, Jordan will all be challenging.

Others in the same race are Kenyan-born Qataris Ahmed Hassan Abdullah (Albert Chepkirui) and James Kwalia.

In the 1,500m, Commonwealth 5,000m champion, Augustine Choge, former double African champion, Alex Kipchirchir, world 800m champion, Alfred Kirwa Yego, Haron Kaitany and Belal Mansour Ali of Bahrain and Thamer Kamel of Qatar will all battle for supremacy.

Top Women

Sudanese Abubaker Kaki will lead the 1,500 assault where Kenya’s Olympic 1,500m silver medallist, Asbel Kiprop and David Lekuta Rudisha and Uganda’s Abraham Chepkirwok are all in contention.

Top women athletes including Kenya’s 1,500m Olympic champion Nancy Jebet Lagat, 800m silver medallist and world champion, Janeth Jepkosgei, Vivian Cheruiyot, Viola Kibiwott and Ethiopia’s Gelete Burika will tackle the 1,500m race.

African Games champion, Ruth Bosibori Nyangau will top the bookies’ choice in the 3,000 sc race where Ethiopia’s Sofia Assefa and Mekdes Bekele are the only challengers.

 

 

Read all about: Brimin Kipruto Nancy Jebet Lagat

 

 

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