World U20: Cheruiyot bags gold for Kenya in 1500m

Kenya's Reynold Cheruiyot in action during the 1500m race at the World U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia on August 1 2022. [World Athletics]

Reynold Cheruiyot on Thursday earned Kenya its second gold medal at the ongoing 2022 World Athletics Under-20 championships in Cali, Colombia after sprinting to victory in the men's 1500m finals.

Following in the footsteps of former World Champion and namesake Timothy Cheruiyot, Reynold stormed to victory in 3:35.83 to beat Ethiopian Ermias Girma to the gold medal.

Girma finished second in 3:37.24 ahead of Daniel Kimaiyo who bagged bronze for Kenya.

Ethiopian duo of Adihana Kasaye and Girma had taken the bell leading the front with Reynold and Kimaiyo following but the latter looked outpaced by Reynold and the Ethiopians with 200m left.

However, in the final 100m stretches, Kimaiyo gave his best to surge past Kasaye to win the bronze medal in 3:37.43.

In the women's 800m, Nelly Chepchirchir missed out on a medal after finishing fourth in the finals.

Despite the 19-year-old clocking a Personal Best time of 2:01.42, Chepchirchir could only witness the US duo of Juliette Whittaker and Roisin Willis storm to victory alongside Swiss athlete Audrey Werro.

Willis won the race in a new Championship Record time of 1:59.13 as Werro set a new Swiss National U20 Record of 1:59.53 to win silver.