Obiri, Cheruiyot and Kipyegon shine at DL meet in Monaco

Kenyan athletes made a resounding comeback to track as the first leg of the 2020 Diamond League went down Friday night in Monaco, France.

World 5,000m champion Hellen Obiri set a new meeting record over the distance when she clocked 14:22.12 outsprinting world 10,000m silver medalist Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia who placed second in 14:26.57 as Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Laura Weightman settled for the third spot in 14:35.44.

World 3,000m steeplechase champion Beatrice Chepkoech who entered the 12-lap race placed sixth in 14:55.01

Later on, world 1,500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot had to dig deeper to hold off Jakob Ingebrgisten when he clocked 3:28.45 as the Norwegian placed second in 3:28.68.

At the same time, Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon stormed to victory in the women’s 1,000m in 2:29.15 beating European champion Laura Muir who came second in 2:30.82 as the world 800m champion Halimah Nakaayi faded to fifth in 2:32.12.

The talk of the night however is Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei who smashed 5,000m world record when he clocked 12:35.36 shaving off close to two minutes off the previous record of 12:37:35 set by Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele in 2004.

The record has stood for 16 years.

Kenya’s Nicholas Kimeli finished a distant second in 12:51.78 ahead of his compatriot Jacob Krop who sealed the podium in 13:11.32.

World Under-20 3,000m steeplechase silver medalist Leonard Bett clocked 8:08.78 to finish as the runners up, behind world bronze medalist Soufianne El Bakkali who crossed the finish line in 8:08.04.

World 800m bronze medalist Ferguson Rotich placed eighth after clocking 1:45.48 in a race won by world champion Donavan Brazier in 1:43.15.