Olympics 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi looks ready for the 2025 season after taking on a longer distance and winning in Kapsabet on Saturday.
Olympics 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi showed that he is ready for the 2025 season when he stormed to victory in a longer distance race on Saturday.
Wanyonyi was among the star attractions at the Athletics Kenya Track and Field Weekend Meet in Kapsabet and he did not disappoint the fans who turned up to cheer him and the others.
Running the 1,500m, Wanyonyi did not look like a man who specialises in 800m as he stormed to victory in 3:38.1, an impressive time by his standards.
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It was just his second 1,500m race as an elite athlete, and his time in Kapsabet was an improvement on the 3:43.19 clocked at Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi.
The 20-year-old made a bold statement with his impressive win in what will give him confidence ahead of his season-opening run at the Grand Slam Track League in Kington, Jamaica from April 4-6.
Wanyonyi is among the star names who will feature in the short distance at Grand Slam Track where winners of each discipline are guaranteed $100,000 (Ksh13 million) in each of the four legs.
At Grand Slam Track, spearheaded by American sprint legend Michael Johnson, Wanyonyi will renew his rivalry with world champion Marco Arop in the men’s short distance that also has American Cole Hocker, Josh Kerr of Britain, American Yared Nuguse, Bryce Hoppel, Neil Gourley and Mohamed Attaoui.
Wanyonyi, the second fastest 800m runner in history, is looking to win his first world title this year after claiming silver behind Arop at the 2023 World Championships.
The Kenyan stunned Arop to win Olympics gold last year and is looking to do the same at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan in September.
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