Two-time World Half Marathon champion Geoffrey Kamworor is set to compete at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon May 28.
Kamworor who is also the world cross-country champion will compete in the 5,000m race, where he will be up against a competitive field including defending champion Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha
Kenyan runners have won the Prefontaine Classic 5,000m more times—10 to be precise—compared to other countries in the last 20 years, and two of those Kenyans are the most recent champions preceding Kejelcha.
Caleb Ndiku, 23, earned the 5000m silver medal in Beijing and won the 5,000m in Eugene in 2014—the year he also won the Diamond Race.
Edwin Soi, 30, has the best set of finishes of anyone in the last three Prefontaine Classic 5,000m race—first in 2013 then second and third.
Kenya’s London 2012 Olympic Games bronze medallist Thomas Longosiwa, now 34, will also be in the field along with 2013 world bronze medallist Isaiah Koech, who also took the 2012 Diamond Race.
Kejelcha a has already a lengthy history behind him. At 16, he won the event at the World Junior Championships Oregon 2014, which was also held at Hayward Field. His last year’s victory made him the Prefontaine Classic’s youngest 5000m winner by four years and foreshadowed two more victories at IAAF Diamond League meetings en-route to winning the Diamond race. He was also fourth in the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015, the only time he has lost to more than one person in an international race.
He ended the year with the world’s fastest 5000m time at 12:53.98.