Cherotich and Wanyonyi stamp authority at Brussels finals

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World champions Faith Cherotich and Emmanuel Wanyonyi lived up to their billing as the undisputed favourites when they claimed victories on the opening night of the Diamond League finals in Brussels, Belgium.

The brilliant duo was among six Diamond League champions who erased meeting records on the opening day of the two-day finals.

Cherotich opened the Kenyan stars’ Diamond League trophy account, unleashing a brutal sprint in the home straight to overpower Olympic champion Winfred Yavi of Bahrain and set the pace for compatriot Doris Lemngole, who followed her across the finish line for second place in a tactical women’s 3,000m steeplechase contest.

She stopped the clock in a meeting record of 8:51.61, lowering the eight-year-old Brussels record of 8:55.10 set by world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech.

Cherotich said she was unsure of lifting her third trophy in Brussels because of the depth of the field.

“I am happy with this race and meeting record. I prayed for times like this. I trained really hard to win this Diamond League trophy. I was not very sure during the race that I was going to win. This was my last race of the season. Overall, it was a very good season. I made some progress and I am hungry to start the preparation for next season,” said Cherotich.

Lemngole finished second in 8:52.86, smashing her personal best.

She outpaced Yavi, who came third in 8:53.54, after the Kenyan duo proved too strong following the final barrier.

“I finished second tonight, but I’m not disappointed that I didn’t win. As an athlete, you have to try to improve day after day and if you accomplish that, then it’s a big achievement. Winning doesn’t really matter. You just have to be the best version of yourself,” Lemngole said.

Like Cherotich, Wanyonyi was also in a class of his own in the men’s 800m.

Wanyonyi produced a brilliant victory, establishing himself as the series’ most dominant star with his fourth Diamond League title, making him the only 800m great to secure four consecutive victories at the final.

His 1:41.80 in Brussels was just 0.04 off his season’s best, which he set in Zurich—the last meeting before the finals.

Wanyonyi, an Olympic champion, had been touted to challenge the 800m world record in Brussels, but the conditions were not favourable enough to push him into the 1:40 territory.

“Today was all about winning and I knew that I would have to run 1:41 to win and I did. I now win the Diamond League for the fourth time in a row and that’s just fantastic. The conditions weren’t ideal tonight. The wind didn’t bother me that much; I was happy it stopped raining,” Wanyonyi said.

Observers say it is only a matter of time before Wanyonyi breaks the world record set by David Rudisha at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Wanyonyi’s closest challenger, Djamel Sedjati of Algeria, was nearly a second adrift, while France’s Yanis Meziane smashed his personal best with 1:42.87 for third.

It was a season of mixed fortunes for Wanyonyi, who has now set his sights on another glorious moment at the inaugural World Athletics.

He set the 1,000m world record in Monaco in July and endured a difficult start to the season, missing out on victory in the 800m at the Rabat, Oslo and London meetings, but ended the circuit on a high.

Phanuel Koech placed second in a dramatic 1,500m final, which was surprisingly won by Australian Cameron Myers. American Ethan Strand settled for third.

Meanwhile, Kenyan legend Prof Mike Boit, the 1972 Olympic 800m bronze medallist, was inducted into the Brussels meet (Memorial Van Damme) Hall of Fame at a gala on Thursday night, just hours before the opening day of the final action.

Boit was inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside American long-jump legend Carl Lewis.

He was honoured for winning the inaugural edition in 1977 and for being among the pioneers of Kenyan athletics.

“Mike Boit is a pioneer of Kenyan athletics. He won the 800 metres at the very first Memorial Van Damme in 1977, a distance at which the late Ivo Van Damme had won silver just a year earlier at the Olympic Games in Montreal. Boit himself won bronze at the 1972 Games in Munich. He was the very first Kenyan athlete to compete on the international meeting circuit,” Brussels Diamond League organisers said.