Emmanuel Korir scheduled to race in Monaco

Despite missing the national trials held on 7 and 8 July at Nyayo National Stadium with injury fears, Olympics and World 800m champion Emmanuel Korir has been scheduled to compete in Friday’s Monaco Diamond League (DL).

The 28-year-old will go up against a deep field of nine other runners including compatriot and world leader Emmanuel Wanyonyi who is fresh from winning the trials in a time of 1:44.09.

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Korir, if he races, will also be up against Commonwealth Games Champion Wycliffe Kinyamal who missed out on a place in Team Kenya during the trials but could still make it to Budapest if the 4x400m teams get through.

Also, on the field is Canadian, 2022 world bronze medalist Marco Arop, 24-year-old Algerian Djamel Sedjati and his counterpart Moula Slimane all who have posted faster times this season than the Kenyan.

Korir’s last race was on 2 July in Stockholm where he recorded 1:48.96 to finish eighth. Before that he was in action on 9 June when he ran what is his season best time of 1:47.71 at the Paris DL, finishing in tenth place. Wanyonyi won said race in 1:43.27, a world lead and Personal Best.

The other DL race for Korir was in Rabat, Morocco where he managed 1:48.42 for an eighth-place finish, the results in the three races pointing to a troubled season for the Paul Ereng-coached athlete.

This is, however, not new for Korir who after winning the Tokyo Olympics fell into some tough times. An injury that he picked up in training in February 2022 forced him to skip the indoors.

He only managed to line up for his first race in May at a meeting in Florida, where he finished third in the 400m.

He ran his first 800m in June and could only manage a sixth-place finish in Montreuil. The Diamond League circuit was a struggle as well, as he came in eighth in Rabat and fifth in Stockholm.

Korir opted to race the 400m at the Kenyan Trials for the worlds in Oregon as he had the wild card for the 800m. He overcame that and went on to win the world title ahead of Algerian Sedjati and Arop.