The trio of Kenyans: Rhonex Kipruto, Agnes Tirop and Timothy Cheruiyot were in sensational form as they beat strong fields to win at the 2019 Bauhaus Galan Diamond League meet in Stockholm Sweden.<\/p>\n
It has been 18 years since a Kenyan won the 10,000m at the world athletics championships. The last Kenyan to win this event is Charles Kamathi who shocked Gebreselassie in 2001. But fast rising Rhonex Kipruto who was only two years old when Kamathi won that shock gold medal, had a brilliant run in Stockholm that gave Kenyan fans reasons to have optimism. He blew away a very strong field that included 2016 Olympic silver medalist Paul Chelimo of the USA and Olympic bronze medalist Hagos Gebrhiwet.<\/p>\n
Kipruto gave a masterful display, setting a torrid pace. By the halfway mark of the race, he was already 50 metres ahead of most of the field. The only runner who tried to keep up the pace was Gebrhiwet. The Ethiopian stayed on Kipruto’s shoulder until there were 3 laps to go. At that point Kipruto shifted gears again, increasing the pace and Gebrhiwet started to gnash his teeth, showing that he was struggling. The gap between the two started to increase. By the end of the race, Kipruto was almost 50 metres ahead of Gebrhiwet and had overlapped almost everyone else. He won in 26:50.16 which is the fastest time in the world since 2017<\/p>\n
With his brilliant display, the 19 year old Kipruto appears a strong candidate to win the 10,000m at the 2019 world championships. His main challenger will be the Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei who earlier this year, won the world cross country championships.<\/p>\n