Asbel Kiprop wins the 1500m at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Monaco.PHOTO/AFP
FRANCE, June 27 – Three –time world champion Asbel Kiprop is the latest addition in the Monaco Herculis Diamond League meeting to run July 15.
Kiprop, who is also the 1500m Olympics champion, will contest his specialist event.
Having recorded his season’s best at this meeting over the past four years, the slowest of which was 3:28.88 and the fastest being his personal best of 3:26.69, the Kenyan will attempt to break his own meeting record which he established in 2015.
His 3:26.69 solo run in Monaco last year moved him up to third on the world all-time list and was just 0.69 shy of the world record.
Kiprop, who is one of the stars expected to light up the Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret on Thursday and Friday when Kenya will conduct the Rio Olympics Trials, has not lost any race this year.
Kenyans are also expected to compete in the men’s 3000m steeplechase where world silver medallist Conseslus Kipruto is leading the chart as well as in the 800m for both men and women.
Wayde Van Niekerk will be making his Herculis debut. The South African won the world title in Beijing last year in an African record of 43.48, moving to fourth on the world all-time list.
Three-time Diamond Race winner Piotr Malachowski will also be in Monaco. The world discus champion from Poland was victorious in Monaco in 2014, the last time the discus was held at the Stade Louis II.
Canada’s world high jump champion Derek Drouin will be competing at Herculis for the third time in his career. The 26-year-old finished fifth at the 2014 edition where the meeting record was upped to 2.40m, the same height as Drouin’s lifetime best.
2016 IAAF Diamond League calendar
6 May – Doha, QAT
14 May – Shanghai, CHN
22 May – Rabat, MAR
28 May – Eugene, USA
2 Jun – Rome, ITA
5 Jun – Birmingham, GBR
9 Jun – Oslo, NOR
16 Jun – Stockholm, SWE
15 Jul – Monaco, MON
22-23 Jul – London, GBR
25 Aug – Lausanne, SUI
27 Aug – Paris, FRA
1 Sep – Zurich, SUI
9 Sep – Brussels, BEL
