World champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi promises a 'special' 2026 season

Emmanuel Wanyonyi, on the verge of being named Male Track of the Year athlete at Sunday's 30 November World Athletics Awards, is promising a 'special' 2026 season, despite it being a relatively quiet one.

Speaking to media personality Lynne Wachira, the 800m World champion acknowledged his achievement as a finalist for the prestigious award.

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"I am happy for this moment as I know it's not easy to be nominated for such. This has, however, motivated me to do something great. I want to do something special for the athletics fraternity," Wanyonyi offered.

Pressed to spill the beans on whether he was talking about chasing the world record, a mark held by his mentor David Rudisha, and one that has been the subject of discussion since he came into the limelight while still a teenager, Wanyonyi remained non-committal.

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"I cannot say what the target will be at the moment. I will get back to training first and plan for the 2026 season with my coach. All I can promise is something great," he reiterated.

Rudisha's World Record of 1:40.91 was set in 2012 at the London Olympic Games. Wanyonyi is the only active runner to come close to that mark with his 1:41.11 at the Lausanne Diamond League in August 2024.

The time has him tied with Wilson Kipketer's 1997 mark for the second-fastest time ever recorded.

Again, after winning the Tokyo World title in a Championship record of 1:41.86, with a gun-to-tape strategy, similar to the one he used last year when winning the Olympic title in Paris, also in a sub-1:42 time, he brought up the world record conversation again in his post-race interview.

“I wanted to do everything to secure the gold. Now I need to defend this title. I want to be a double world champion. Maybe I will start to think about the world record too," he told World Athletics.

In the Tokyo final, the 21-year-old set a fast pace from the start, running the first lap in 49.26, two hundredths of a second faster than his compatriot Rudisha did in the Olympic final in London 13 years ago, when he set the world record.

His fast pace led to one of the fastest 800m races in history; it was the first time that eight men had finished inside 1:43 in a single race.

It remains to be seen what the Olympic champion, battling Noah Nyles for the Male Track of the Year Award, has in store for the new season.