On Thursday night, freshly crowned 800m Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi delivered another electrifying performance, defeating his rival Marco Arop of Canada in a rematch at the Diamond League meet in Lausanne, Switzerland. Wanyonyi surged in the final stretch to claim victory with a time of 1 minute, 41.11 seconds — the fastest in the world since David Rudisha’s 1:40.91 world record in the 2012 Olympic final in London.
The remarkable run also saw the 20-year-old sensation set a new Diamond League record (DLR), a meeting record (MR), and a personal best (PB). This victory followed closely on the heels of his triumph in Paris, where he outpaced Arop to win the Olympic title in 1:41.19, maintaining Kenya’s dominance in the distance.
World champion Arop, eager to redeem himself after the Paris defeat, finished second, clocking 1:41.72, while France’s Gabriel Tual secured third place with a time of 1:42.30.
In the women’s 800m, world champion Mary Moraa returned to the track with a commanding performance following her bronze medal at the Paris Games. Moraa sprinted past her competitors in the final 200m, winning in 1:57.91, ahead of Great Britain’s Georgia Bell and her compatriot Rekkie Jemma.
Moraa’s strong Diamond League form continued, having won in Doha in May and finishing second at the Prefontaine Classic, the Eugene Diamond League, that same month. In Paris, she had to settle for bronze with a time of 1:57.42, trailing Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson (1:56.72) and Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma (1:57.15).
Meanwhile, in the men’s 1500m, Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen outpaced American Cole Hocker, winning with a time of 3:27.83 compared to Hocker’s 3:29.85, in a matchup of the last two Olympic gold medalists.
Kenya’s Reynold Cheruiyot and Brain Komen finished fourth and fifth, respectively, as the country’s struggles in the 1500m distance persisted. African champion Komen and 2020 Tokyo Games silver medallist Timothy Cheruiyot failed to secure medals in the 1500m final at the Paris Olympics, with Reynold not qualifying for the final.
In the final, Komen placed last with a time of 3:35.59, while Cheruiyot finished just ahead of him at 3:31.35, in a race won by American Cole Hocker.
In Lausanne, Olympic champion and African record holder Letsile Tebogo of Botswana claimed victory in the 200m, clocking 19.64 seconds and edging out American Erriyon Knighton by 14 hundredths of a second.
The Diamond League season continues on Sunday with a meet in Poland.
