World Champion Mary Moraa has withdrawn from the Brussels leg of the Diamond League series ongoing in Belgium.
Moraa was one of the 14 global championship set to participate inthe meeting tonight.
Moraa won the World Athletics Championship 800 metres title in 1 minute, 56.03 seconds.
The 23 year old has registered good performances this season, having won the Rabat, Lausanne and Silesia Diamond League meetings.
This was the first time Moraa was to participate in the 400 metres at the Diamond League meetings.
The 2023 meeting however is expected to be a star studded affair.
Highlighting the roster are names like Femke Bol, who excelled in the women’s 400 metres hurdles and 4×400 relay, Sherika Jackson in the women’s 200 metres, Jakob Ingebrigtsen for the men’s 5000 metres, and a slew of other remarkable athletes including Armand Duplantis, Yaroslava Mahuchik, Winfred Yavi, Haruka Kitaguchi, Chase Ealey, Quincy Hall, Lieke Klaver, Eveline Saalberg, and Cathelijn Peeters.
The prestigious competition will unfold on the freshly laid track of the refurbished King Baudouin Stadium.
Kenyan athletes are set to offer stiff opposition as they seek to tighten their top slots.
One of the races that will see Kenyan’s going head to head is in the men’s 2000m.
The Kenyan challenge is led by Abel Kipsang, fourth at the World Championships in the 1500m in 3:29.89, Reynold Kipkorir Cheruyiot, world under 20 champion in Cali 2022 and third at the Diamond League meeting In Chorzow in his lifetime best of 3:30.30.
They will be out to stop 5,000m World champion Jacob Ingebrigtsen who has announced his desire of breaking the races record of 4:44.79 set by Moroccan Hicham El Gouraj in Berlin in 1999.
Men’s 800 metres:
Double Commonwealth Games champion Wycliffe Kinyamal will start as the favourite in the men’s 800 metres. The Kenyan athlete ran the second fastest time in the world this year with 1:44.22 at the Monaco Diamond League meeting, but he finished fourth at the Kenyan Trials in Nairobi and did not take part at the World Championships in Budapest.
The other top names are Ben Pattison, world bronze medallist in Budapest, Dhamel Sedjati, (world silver medallist in Eugene) Slimane Moula (fifth at the World Chmpionships in Eugene and Budapest), Benjamin Robert from France, fifth in Paris Charlety in 1:43.48 and third in Xiamen in 1:43.88,, Yanis Meziane, European under 23 champion in Espoo 2023, and Daniel Rowden from Greta Britain, fifth at the Monaco Diamond League meeting in his PB of 1:43.95.
Women’s 5000 metres:
World under 20 champion Medina Eisa from Ethiopia starts with the fastest time among the entrants with her world under 20 record of 14:16.54 set at London Diamond League in London. Eisa won the world under 20 silver medal at the World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst and sixth in the 5000 metres at the World Championships in Budapest.
The best Kenyan athletes in the field are Lilian Kasait Rengeruk, who clocked 14:23.05 in Paris, Grace Nawowuna, who set a PB of 29:47.42 in the 10000 metres in Hengelo.
