Dominant Kipruto

By Jonathan Komen

World junior 3,000m steeplechase champion, Conseslus Kipruto, maintained an unbeaten run at the ExxonMobil Bislett Games in Oslo at the IAAF Diamond League meeting on Thursday night.

Two-time Olympic 5,000m champion, Meseret Defar, maintained her winning streak in Oslo, having won at the Norwegian city three times before, with her 2007 World record of 14:16.63 as the highlight.

Unbeaten this season, athletics pundits nick-named Kipruto “Kiboko Yao ” for the manner in which he has defeated world’s top steeplechasers, was in his typical element.

The runner from Kipchunu village in Nandi County was inspired into the water and barriers race by Ezekiel Kemboi, the world and Olympic champion. Interestingly, Kemboi is among his casualties this season even as they gear for the National Bank of Kenya/Athletics national trials for world championships.

The World Youth champion went to Oslo as the favourite and was operating close to World-record pace for much of the race. The quick early laps, going through the first kilometre in 2:36, eventually took their toll, and the teenager had to be content with the victory in 8:04.48.

Olympic champion Kemboi once again finished behind his younger compatriot, this time with a season’s best of 8:07.00. Another tradition of the Bislett Games is, of course, the Dream Mile.

The withdrawal of Kenya’s World champion Asbel Kiprop threw the race wide open, and Djibouti’s Ayanleh Souleiman grabbed the opportunity to take his first ever Diamond League win.

Having finished fourth in the Mile in Eugene earlier this month, this time Souleiman – a training partner of Algeria’s Olympic 1,500m champion Taoufik Makhloufi – surged to the front just after the bell and held his form to win in 3:50.53.

Behind him, Kenya’s Nixon Chepseba set a personal best of 3:50.95, finishing ahead of compatriot James Magut, who was third in 3:51.11.

But Dibaba, beaten by Genzebe Dibaba in Shanghai in her first Diamond League appearance of 2013, wasn’t ready to suffer a defeat on one of her favourite European tracks.

After a good pace-making job – going through 3,000m in 8:48.10 – Defar picked up the tempo in an attempt to run the sting out of her compatriot, Dibaba.

The tactic worked and she kicked hard on the final lap to extend her margin over the field, covering the final 400m in 61.7 seconds.

Defar – who last summer didn’t win a single track race outside of the Olympics – was rewarded with a world-leading time of 14:26.90, her fastest performance since 2010 and the 12th fastest run ever.

Kenya’s Viola Kibiwot overtook a fading Dibaba to take second, 14:33.48 to 14:37.68. “Before Shanghai, I was sick and I nearly cancelled the race,” said Defar. — Additional reporting by IAAF.com