World champions Almaz Ayana and Vivian Cheruiyot will meet in a race promising plenty of excitement over 300m at the 2016 Doha meeting, the opening round of the fourteen-round Diamond League athletics series, on Friday 6 May. In what looks certain to be the strongest clash of the early season in the middle- and long-distance events, the longest race at the Doha meeting will pit Ayana, winner of the 5,000m at last year’s World Championships in Beijing, against Cheruiyot, who returned from maternity leave last year to win 10,000m gold.
Cheruiyot’s win in Beijing was the fifth World Championship title for the 32-year-old Kenyan, whose consistency on the track over the past years has also brought her the Diamond League trophy in her events in the 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons.
Ayana, 24, meanwhile holds the Ethiopian record in the 3,000m. The time she ran last season, 8:22.20, ranks eleventh on the all-time list.
On the two champions’ participation in the Doha meeting, Qatar Athletics Federation president Dahlan Al Hamad said: “Bringing these two champions together in one race reflects our commitment to featuring the best middle- and long-distance runners at the Doha championship. Two years ago, Doha hosted one of the greatest women’s 3,000m races in history. I feel a great deal of excitement over whether we will see a race of that calibre again this year, as we prepare for the opening round of the Doha Diamond League for the seventh year running.”
The 2014 race really was one of the best we have seen, with Kenya’s Hellen Obiri leading a field of eight runners under 8:30 on her way to breaking the African record with a time of 8:20.68.
Second place in that race went to another Kenyan, Mercy Cherono, who returns to Doha as the fastest woman in this year’s field thanks to her time of 8:21.14, set behind Obiri in that thrilling 2014 race. Cherono, 24, finished fifth in the 5,000m at last year’s World Championships, and in 2014 won the Diamond League trophy in the same event.
The high-level field also includes Ethiopians Senbere Teferi and Gelete Burka, who won silver at the 2015 World Championships in the 5,000m and 10,000m respectively. Also on the start line in Doha will be Kenya’s Viola Kibiwot, who finished fourth in Beijing last summer.
In the men’s 3,000m steeplechase, the field is led by two-time Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi of Kenya, and his younger compatriot Jairus Birech, who last year won the Diamond League trophy for the second year running.
Kemboi, who won Olympic gold in 2004 and 2012, claimed his fourth world title last year, having settled for silver three times in a row. The 33-year-old, whose personal best of 7:55.76 ranks sixth on the all-time list, will look for a fourth win at the Doha meeting, having already won in 2009, 2010 and 2014.
Birech, meanwhile, is considered a rising force who took control of the event in 2014 when he won the African and Continental Cup titles and six of the seven Diamond League races he entered — his only defeat that season coming at last year’s Doha meeting. Birech, who finished fourth at the last World Championships, holds a personal best of 7:58.41, set in 2014 in the Qatari capital, which ranks tenth on the all-time list.
Also returning to Doha is Brimin Kipruto, bronze medallist at the 2008 Olympics and the 2015 World Championships and a former African record holder, who is looking for his first win in Doha. Kipruto ran 7:53.64 in Monaco in 2011, failing to break the world record held by Qatar’s Saif Saeed Shaheen by a margin of just one hundredth of a second.
Also among the entrants in this race is his namesake Conseslus Kipruto, a former world youth and junior champion who won silver at the last two World Championships before turning 21.
The holder of the Doha meeting record, at 7:56.58, set in 2012, Paul Kipsiele Koech, will also be among the competitors in the race.
Eunice Sum, the 2013 world champion and bronze medallist last year, will for her part lead the women’s 800m field.
The 27-year-old Kenyan improved her personal best last season to 1:56.99, and will this year be looking to win the Diamond League trophy for a fourth year running, as well as a second consecutive win at the Doha meeting.
Among her strongest rivals will be South Africa’s Caster Semenya, the 2009 world champion and 2012 Olympic silver medallist. Britain’s Shelayna Oskan-Clarke and Morocco’s Malika Akkaoui, who both reached last year’s World Championship final in this event, are also worth watching.
Two years ago, American Chanelle Price chased Sum to the line, finishing second just 0.42 of a second behind. Price, who was that year’s surprise package at the World Indoor Championships, will also be back in Doha.
The middle-distance programme also includes the men’s 1500m, whose field was announced earlier. In this race, the field is led by three-time world champion and Doha meeting record holder, Kenya’s Asbel Kiprop, along with five other runners who have gone under 3:30, including Kenya’s Elijah Motonei Manangoi, silver medallist at the last World Championships.
