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Kenya’s female athletes reigned supreme at the Diamond League final in Brussels as they scooped most of the titles to maintain their good record at major championships.
Kenya’s female athletes continued to fly the country’s flag at the Diamond League final in Brussels when they clinched most titles at the season finale.
Out of the nine track events in Brussels, four went Kenya’s way with some stunning performances being witnessed in the Belgian capital.
Three of the four titles were won on the second day of the competition after world champion Mary Moraa had regained her 800m crown in fine fashion on Friday.
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11:00 - 15.09.2024
Faith Cherotich shares tactics behind her stunning Diamond League win over Olympic champion Winfred Yavi
Faith Cherotich claimed her first-ever Diamond League victory in the women's 3000m steeplechase, defeating Olympic champion Winfred Yavi.
Moraa ran a very tactical race to win the 800m Diamond Trophy in a season’s best 1:56.56, having saved the best for last, as she stormed to victory in the final 200m.
The Commonwealth champion had last won the trophy in 2022 before she was denied by American Athing Mu last year but she made amends with her victory ahead of Britain’s Georgia Bell (1:57.50) and Jamaica’s Natoya Goule-Toppin, who completed the podium in 1:58.94.
Kenyans were sent into delirium on Saturday when 20-year-old Faith Cherotich stunned Olympics and world champion Winfred Yavi to claim the 3,000m steeplechase title.
With Yavi and former Olympics champion Peruth Chemutai of Uganda in the race, few gave Cherotich a chance at victory but she proved everyone wrong.
The world and Olympics bronze medallist timed her jumps at the water barriers to perfection while keeping Yavi in check, and at the final hurdle, she had already managed a good gap which she held on to win her first-ever Diamond League title.
After Cherotich’s heroics, it was the time of the GOAT to do what she has always done. Faith Kipyegon lined up for the 1,500m and no one in the stadium expected anybody else to win.
It is what just happened as the three-time Olympics champion smashed the meeting record to clock 3:54.75 for her fifth Diamond League title.
Double Olympics champion Beatrice Chebet put the icing on the cake for the Kenyan women when she commanded the 5,000m race from start to finish.
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13:30 - 15.09.2024
Faith Kipyegon reveals plans to close the season after clinching fifth Diamond League trophy
Faith Kipyegon is not done with her season yet despite her dominant exploits at the Diamond League Meeting final in Brussels where she claimed her fifth trophy.
Chebet left her rivals by a big gap as she lowered Almas Ayana’s meeting record by setting a new mark of 14:09.82 for her second Diamond League title.
Like Moraa, Chebet had also won her first trophy in 2022 before missing out last year, but made amends in emphatic style. To show how dominant she was, second-placed Medina Eisa of Ethiopia came home in 14:21.89.
It has been a great season for Chebet who has a world record in 10,000m, World Cross-Country title, two Olympics gold medals and now the Diamond League title in 2024.
Other track titles titles went to Julien Alfred from St Lucia (100m), American Brittany Brown (200m), Marileidy Paulino from the Dominican Republic (400m), Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (Pueto Rico) for the 100m hurdles and Dutchwoman Femke Bol who claimed the 400m hurdles crown.
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15:36 - 14.09.2024
Mary Moraa reveals her main target for next year after reclaiming Diamond League Trophy
World champion Mary Moraa has set lofty ambitions for next season after ending her 2024 campaign with the Diamond League Trophy win in Brussels on Friday.
The Diamond League final wins came with $30,000 (Ksh3.9 million) reward and a shiny diamond trophy for each of the champion.
It continues a trend where Kenyan women have outperformed their male counterparts at major events in the last one year, with all three gold medallists at the 2023 World Championships being ladies, while three of the four gold medals won at the Paris Olympics came from the same gender.
Over to you, Kenyan men in 2025.
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