Wanyonyi, birthday girl Moraa headline Stockholm DL field

A total of nine Kenyan athletes will be involved in Sunday’s Diamond League meeting in Stockholm, the second of back-to-back Scandinavian stops.

That lineup will be headlined by global stars Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Mary Moraa, who will light up the 800m, even in the face of stern opposition.

Wanyonyi will be one of seven individual gold medalists from the Paris 2024 Olympics to line up in front of a packed 1912 Olympic Stadium, seeking to carry on his exploits from three days ago in Oslo.

The 20-year-old ran a season-best 1:42.78 to take the win in the Norwegian capital, and he will be hot favorite in a sort of rematch bringing together five of the top six finishers from that meeting.

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Among his top contenders in the race set to gun off at 1948 EAT will be Paris Olympics bronze medalist Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati, world indoor champion Bryce Hoppel, and European champion Gabriel Tual.

So loaded is the field that it contains four of the top six finishers from the Paris final.

Fellow Kenyan and two-time Commonwealth Games champion Wyclife Kinyamal will also be in the mix, running his third Diamond League race this season after finishing third and sixth in Doha and Rabat respectively.

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In the women’s version of the two-lap distance, 2023 World Champion Moraa will make her first appearance in the Diamond League this season coincidentally on her 25th birthday.

After a series of runs in the Grand Slam Track, the Olympic bronze medalist will kickstart her hunt for the Diamond League title she won last year.

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Moraa, like Wanyonyi, will be heavily fancied in the 2031 EAT race, despite coming in with the seventh-slowest time on the field.

Moraa’s season-best is 1:59.51, which she set early last month in Miami.

Her quest will not be plain sailing however, as she will come up against World Indoor champion Prudence Sekgodiso, and Great Britain's duo of World Indoor silver medalist Jemma Reekie and 1500m Paris Olympics bronze medalist Georgia Hunter Bell.

In the men’s 5000m, Kenya’s World U20 champion Andrew Alamisi will compete in his first career Diamond League race, when he teams up with African Games champion Cornelius Kemboi and another debutant in the form of World U20 3000m silver medalist Denis Kipkoech.

The trio will have their work cut out, needing to fend off the challenges of Olympic 1500m champion Cole Hocker, Kuma Girma – who clocked a PB of 12:46.41 in Oslo – and home star Andreas Almgren, who will be running his first Diamond League race this season.

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29-year-old Festus Lagat will on the other hand feature in the men’s 1500m, which will see him come up against world bronze medalist Narve Gilje Nordas, and George Mills, who on Thursday clocked 12:46.59 seconds in the 5000m in Oslo to beat Sir Mo Farah's previous UK best of 12:53.11.

The women’s 3000m will meanwhile pair up African champion Caroline Nyaga - running her second Diamond League race after Xiamen - and Japan-based Hellen Ekalale Lobun.