Cheruiyot eyes first senior global title in Riga

Despite still being an U20 athlete, Reynold Cheruiyot has used the 2023 season to test the waters of the senior international scene. He now aims to end the year by winning his first senior global title.

The 19-year-old Kenyan won the world U20 1500m title last year, which he followed with silver in the U20 race at the World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst back in February. He won the African U20 1500m title two months later, but has focused on senior competition since then.

He clocked a 1500m PB of 3:30.30, putting him fifth on the world U20 all-time list, and came close to matching that time when placing eighth in the World Championships final in 3:30.78.

After the World Championships, he went on to set a world U20 best for 2000m (4:48.14) and a world U20 record for the mile (3:48.06).

Not only does he have the fastest 1500m season’s best of all the Riga entrants, he also has the fastest track mile PB. But even so, there is no clear-cut favourite in this extremely open field.

Ethiopian duo Teddese Lemi and Melkeneh Azize are among the quicker entrants, based on 1500m form.

Lemi was part of the victorious Ethiopian mixed relay team at the 2019 World Cross, and last year he placed fourth at the World Indoor Championships and eighth at the World Championships.

Eighteen-year-old Azize will be competing at his first senior global championships. After taking world U20 1500m bronze in 2021, he upgraded it to 3000m gold in 2022. As a measure of his talent, he set a 1500m PB of 3:33.74 in 2021 when he was just 16 years of age.

Sam Prakel heads to Riga off the back of having his road mile mark of 4:01.21 ratified as the inaugural world record for the discipline. The US indoor champion reached the 1500m final at last year’s World Indoors and will be aiming to improve on his eighth-place finish from there.

Kipyegon facing deep field in quest for third world title of the season

Compatriot Hobbs Kessler will be making his global championships debut. The 20-year-old holds the North American U20 1500m record and the US high school indoor mile record, and earlier this year he set a 1500m PB of 3:32.61.

South Africa’s Ryan Mphahlele has excelled on the roads, cross country and track this year. He ran a storming leg in the mixed relay at the World Cross in Bathurst, then followed it with a 1500m PB of 3:32.90 in mid-April. Less than two weeks later, he set a national record of 13:24 for the road 5km. He has also won two international track mile races this season, setting PBs of 3:55.59 and 3:54.48.

Other potential contenders include Kenya’s world cross mixed relay champion Kyumbe Munguti, in-form Italian Mohad Abdikadar Sheik Ali and Australia’s Matthew Ramsden.

©Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics