Injury blow as Diamond League champion Serem to miss WC National Trials

Kenya’s hopes of reclaiming its lost glory in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase have suffered a major setback after 2024 Diamond League winner Amos Serem ruled self out of the national trials for the 2025 World Championships due to injury.

The 21-year-old sustained a leg injury on March 15 during the third Athletics Kenya Track and Field Weekend Meet, after an awkward landing during a water jump at the Eliud Kipchoge Sports Complex — a venue that lacks a standard track. The incident has reignited concerns about the subpar infrastructure Kenyan athletes are often forced to endure.

“Sitakuwa! Bado siko poa,” Serem told Citizen Digital from Kaptagat, confirming the injury is still troubling him.

The setback robs Serem of a chance to build on his historic win at the 2023 Brussels Diamond League Final, where he ended Olympic and world champion Soufiane El Bakkali’s three-year unbeaten run. Serem clocked 8:06.90, ahead of El Bakkali’s 8:08.60.

With Amos sidelined, attention now turns to his younger brother, Edmund Serem, who is steadily stepping out of his brother’s shadow and into the spotlight.

The World U20 champion and African silver medallist has emerged as Kenya’s brightest prospect in the water-and-barrier event this season. Edmund has finished on the podium in four of his five races this year, including a standout performance at the Monaco Diamond League on Friday, July 11, where he clocked 8:04.00 to finish third — the fastest time by a U20 athlete globally in 2024.

That race was won by El Bakkali, with Japan’s Ryuji Miura finishing second in 8:03.18.

Edmund will now line up at the national trials at Ulinzi Sports Complex, facing stiff competition from seasoned campaigners including Abraham Kibiwott, Simon Koech, Benjamin Kigen, Leonard Bett, Geoffrey Kirwa, and Mathew Kosgei — all vying to restore Kenya’s dominance on the global stage.

Once undisputed kings of the steeplechase, Kenya’s dominance began at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, where Moses Kiptanui and Patrick Sang won gold and silver respectively. From that point, Kenya claimed every World Championship title in the event — except in 2003 and 2005, when Kenyan-born Saif Saaeed Shaheen (formerly Stephen Cherono) won for Qatar.

However, recent years have seen a shift in power. El Bakkali ended Kenya’s Olympic winning streak at Tokyo 2020 (held in 2021), and followed it up with back-to-back World Championship titles in 2022 and 2023. Kenya had to settle for bronze — first through Conseslus Kipruto in Eugene, then Abraham Kibiwott in Budapest.

Kenya’s last World Championship gold came in 2019, when Kipruto edged Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma by just 0.01 seconds. Kipruto clocked 8:01.35, while Girma finished in 8:01.36 — still Kenya’s most recent global triumph in an event it once owned.

When it comes to dominance in athletics, few countries have matched what Kenya achieved in the steeplechase. From 1968 to 2016 (excluding the years they boycotted), Kenya won every Olympic gold medal in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase — including podium sweeps in 1992 and 2004.