Red hot Emmanuel Korir headlines Kenyan cast in Silesia Diamond League

Kenya’s two-lap specialist Emmanuel Korir will headline the country’s contingent that is set to compete at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Silesia, Poland on Saturday 6 August 2022.

A stellar field, including 49 medalists and 12 individual champions from the recent World Athletics Championships held in Oregon, are all set to converge in Poland in an event that will mark the first Diamond League meeting ever hosted in the country.

After winning his maiden World 800m title in Oregon after two previous unsuccessful attempts in 2017 and 2019, Korir, who is also the reigning Olympic champion will be aiming to carry that impressive form into Silesia.

In the 12-man entry list, Korir will come up against Olympic bronze medalist Patryk Dobek, who is a home favourite, but is expected to show his pedigree as he is the only athlete to have set a season-best time below 1:44.00.

Korir, will also come up against the tough challenge that should be presented by compatriot Ferguson Rotich who is the Olympic silver medalist.

In the 3000m women’s race, World 10,000m bronze medalist Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi will be among the Kenyan trio that includes Gloria Kite and Peninanh Wangari Wachira seeking to leave their mark in a field comprising of Dutch double Olympic champion Sifan Hassan who will be looking to bounce back from her disappointment in Oregon. Ethiopia’s World 5000m leader Ejgayehu Taye is also among the athletes in contention to win.

Although it’s not a Diamond League event, plenty of interest will also rest on the women’s 100m, where Jamaican icon Fraser-Pryce will be looking to re-assert her authority on the event after winning her fifth world 100m title in Eugene.

World finalist Aleia Hobbs, US champion Melissa Jefferson and compatriot Twanisha Terry – all of whom won 4x100m gold in Oregon – are also in the line-up.

More fireworks are expected in the women’s 200m, where newly crowned world champion Shericka Jackson of Jamaica will face world and Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of The Bahamas, as well as Olympic bronze medalist Gabby Thomas and USA’s world finalist Tamara Clark.

Jackson landed one of the performances of the championships in Eugene with a searing 21.46 to move to second on the world all-time list but Miller-Uibo is not short on confidence and form having collected her first world gold over one lap in Eugene.

In the men’s 100m, world silver and bronze medalists Marvin Bracy-Williams and Trayvon Bromell of the USA are in the line-up, along with 2019 world champion Christian Coleman and 2011 world champion Yohan Blake of Jamaica in to spice the brew.

After winning gold with a world record of 6.21m in Eugene, Sweden’s Duplantis has more than enough in hand to attack another six-meter vault. World and Olympic silver medallist Chris Nilsen of the USA and world bronze medalist Ernest John Obiena of the Philippines lead the opposition.