OREGON22: Kamworor, Kiptum face tough test in quest for marathon title

News that 2019 Boston and Chicago Marathon champion, Lawrence Cherono has been provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) could not have come at a worse time. 

With only hours to the men's marathon and team reserve in 2017 World champion Geoffrey Kirui having not travelled to Oregon, Kenya's hopes rest on Geoffrey Kamworor and Barnaba Kiptum. 

Kamworor ran his first race, since his June 2020 accident, in January 2021, winning the Kenyan Police Cross Country Championships before going on to secure a place on Kenya’s Olympic 10,000m team after winning the national trials, only to have to pull out with an ankle injury.

But at the Valencia Marathon last December he was able to perform to the peak of his ability once more as he set a personal best of 2:05:23 in finishing fourth.

Kamworor has a World Championship silver won in Beijing 2015 on track in 10,000m. He went on to win world cross-country senior titles in 2015 and 2017 and world half marathon titles in 2014, 2016 and 2018.

In his first competitive marathon in 2012 he finished third in Berlin in 2:06:12, and he was a consistent presence on the podium at World Majors Marathons thereafter, particularly in New York, where he finished second in 2015, first in 2017, third in 2018 and first again in 2019.

Kiptum also set a personal best last year as he clocked 2:04:17 in placing third at the Milan Marathon and has a solid top-three record in virtually every race he has contested.

Omanyala stays positive after difficult World Championship debut

Meanwhile Kenya’s perennial rivals Ethiopia will be looking to their current world champion Lelisa Desisa, who found the way to win in the steamy heat of Doha three years ago, to make the most of his wild card entry to this year’s competition.

Lelisa has teammates Tamirat Tola, Mosinet Geremew and Seifa Tura for company. Tola earned Olympic 10,000m bronze in 2016 and world marathon silver in 2017. He set his personal best of 2:03:38 last year.

Geremew took silver behind Desisa at the 2019 World Championships, having finished second at that year’s London Marathon in 2:02:55, the third-fastest time in history.

Another championship another Kenyan drug cheat: marathon runner Cherono suspended

Tura set his personal best of 2:04:29 last year in Milan before going on to win the Chicago Marathon in 2:06:12.

The three-loop World Athletics Championships marathon course only varies by about seven metres between its high and low points and the weather is likely to be considerably cooler than it was in Sapporo or Doha, where the men's marathon had to be held at midnight and the start time temperature was 29C/84F with 51% humidity.

Additional information by World Athletics.