Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot won the men’s 1,500m in a world-leading 3:30.77 at the sixth IAAF Diamond League meeting of the season in Stockholm on Sunday.
The race left no doubt that Cheruiyot’s more illustrious compatriot and triple world champion Asbel Kiprop still has a way to go if he is to win a fourth consecutive title in London this summer.
The 21-year-old Cheruiyot finished seventh in the 2015 World Championships final, where Kiprop last struck gold, but here he earned greater rewards as he took control of the race around the final bend, holding off the challenge of Bahrain’s Alsadik Mikhou, who was second in 3:31.49. Ethiopia’s Aman Wote, third in a season’s best of 3:31.63 and just ahead of Kiprop, whose time of 3:33.17 was also a season’s best.
Norway’s 16-year-old wunderkind Jakob Ingebrigtsen was the last man home. After the triumphs and garlands of his U20 Dream Mile victory on home soil in Oslo, where he had reduced his personal best to 3:56.29, he experienced the other side of athletics as he finished more than 30 metres adrift of the field.
His dogged finish saw him rewarded with another significant personal best of 3:39.92, a European age-16 best and well inside his previous PB of 3:42.44.
“I am very happy,” said Cheruiyot. “The race went to plan—I tried to go at 300m. I’ll go back to Kenya now and prepare for the World Champs trials. I will be really happy if I can make it to London. This was good preparation for this.”
Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco claimed the men’s 3000m steeplechase maximum points as he won in 8:15.01, with Yemane Haileselassie of Eritrea second in 8:18.29 and third place going to Kenya’s Nicholas Kiptanui Bett, who clocked 8:21.98.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Andre De Grasse was blown to an emphatic and remarkably swift 100 metres win in a wind-assisted 9.69 seconds at thsame meeting.
De Grasse, who may offer the biggest threat to Usain Bolt in the Jamaican’s final major meeting at the world championships in August, flew down the Olympic Stadium track to hammer the opposition in a race which saw five men dip under 10 seconds.
Yet though the Olympic 200m silver medallist’s run was by far the fastest anywhere this year, he was aided by a 4.8 metres per second following wind, more than twice the 2 mps allowable limit, which ruled it out as a 2017 world leading performance.
Nonetheless, De Grasse, who won the 100m in the Oslo Diamond League meet on Thursday, underlined the threat he could pose to Bolt in London with a victory by 0.15 of a second over Ivorian Ben Youssef Meite and 0.2 ahead of Jamaican Ryan Shields.
“It was a shock to me when I saw the time on the board, I just wanted to run sub-10 and I didn’t feel in the shape to run that fast,” the 22-year-old De Grasse said.
“That’s the fastest I’ve ever run. It’s going to be a shock to the body. Tomorrow’s going to hurt a little bit.”
De Grasse’s time was equal to 9.79 seconds with wind of 2 mps and 9.88 with no wind. Bolt’s world record set at the Berlin world championships in 2009 is 9.58 seconds with wind of 0.9 mps.
“It gives me a lot of confidence running that fast because I didn’t feel that fast,” added De Grasse.
“I know when I actually start coming together and feeling good and getting ready to peak for the world championships, I know it’s going to be something special.”