Summary
Timothy Cheruiyot aims for victory in Doha Diamond League
Recovered from knee injury
Building towards Olympic trials in Paris
Cheruiyot: Importance of health and happiness
Past achievements: silver & gold in World Championships
Cheruiyot’s personal best: 3:28.28 in 1500m
After recovering from an injury, Timothy Cheruiyot is looking to shine in the Doha Diamond League set for Friday, May 10, 2024.
The 28-year-old is hoping to make a statement win in the Qatari city ahead of his trials for the Olympic Games in Paris in August.
“The men’s 1500m is one of the most competitive and exciting events in athletics right now.
“While I was proud to have represented Kenya at my fifth consecutive World Championships last summer, it took me some time to recover from a knee injury that was affecting my performance.
“My race fitness isn’t quite where I’d like it to be at this time of year, but the most important thing is that I’m healthy and happy. I’m looking forward to racing in Doha – a country where I have such wonderful memories of winning world gold – and putting down an important marker as I build towards the Kenyan Olympic trials,” Cheruiyot said.
Cheruiyot was a 1500m silver medallist at the World Athletics Championships in London in 2017 before he upgraded to gold in Doha. He finished sixth in the Eugene finals in 2022 and has a personal best of 3:28.28 (2021).
Rivals
The short-distance runner, who opened his season with a 1:46.56 800m at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi on April 20, will line up against world bronze medallist Narve Gilje Nordas of Norway.
Teenage record-breakers Biniam Mehary of Ethiopia and Kenya’s Reynold Cheruiyot will also be competing in Doha.
Nordas excelled in 2023 with lifetime bests across a range of distances from 1500m (3:29.47) to 5000m (13:05.38). In the World Championships in Budapest, he won bronze which saw him finish just three one-hundredths of a second behind countryman Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
Mehary, 17, and Cheruiyot, 19, the world under-20 1500m champion and a finalist at the 2023 World Championships – have also made the headlines over the past 12 months setting world age-group records over 1500m indoors (3:34.83) and mile (3:48.06), respectively.
Two-time world indoor 1500m champion and Ethiopian indoor record holder Samuel Tefera; Spain’s 1500m indoor record holder Adel Mechaal, fifth in the Tokyo Olympic Games; and Olympic and World Championships fourth-place finisher Abel Kipsang of Kenya are the other notable stars to race in the 1500m.
The Seashore Group Doha Meeting is the third meeting of the 2024 Wanda Diamond League.
Timothy Cheruiyot Profile
Timothy Cheruiyot (born 20 November 1995) is a Kenyan middle-distance runner specializing in the 1500 metres. He is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic silver medallist in the event. At the World Athletics Championships, Cheruiyot won the silver medal in 2017 in London, and a gold in 2019 in Doha.
He took the silver medal in his specialty event at the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games, and is also a two-time African Championship silver medallist from 2016 and 2018. Cheruiyot won the 1500 m Diamond League title on four occasions: in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021.
Personal Bests
800 metres – 1:43.11 (Nairobi 2019)
1500 metres – 3:28.28 (Monaco 2021)
One mile – 3:49.64 (Eugene, OR 2017)
2000 metres – 5:03.05 (Nairobi 2020)
5000 metres – 13:47.2 (Nairobi 2020)
