Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi’s fiercest challenger has been Marco Arop of Canada, but Algerian Djamel Sedjati has been a major threat to the duo’s legacy in the men’s 800m.
Sedjati, an Olympic bronze medallist from the 2024 Paris Games, has been consistent in his campaign to upset the pecking order and has occasionally defeated Wanyonyi and World Champion, Arop.
This evening, Wanyonyi faces the Algerian national record holder at the Stockholm Diamond League in Sweden.
Wanyonyi and Sedjati are fresh from podium positions at the Oslo meet on Thursday night.
The Kenyan star won the 800m contest at the Oslo leg, while the Algerian finished third behind Mohamed Attaoui of Spain, who was second.
Expected in Stockholm tonight is not just an Oslo rematch but Paris Olympics replay; this time in the absence of Arop who bagged silver at the 2024 Games.
Wanyonyi, a world silver medallist, said on Thursday night that he was going to use the Stockholm meet to tie up loose ends in a world championships year.
“I am happy with the start to my season in this World Championship year, and now I will go to Stockholm and Monaco, where I hope to get sharp and run fast,” a confident Wanyonyi said ahead of the head-to-head contest with Sedjati this evening.
The pre-race favourite duo is in a star-studded field assembled perhaps for blistering speeds.
Wanyonyi won his second successive Diamond League title last season, just weeks after claiming Olympic gold in Paris.
At the final meet of the 2024 circuit hosted in Brussels, Wanyonyi took the title, Sedjati came in second, while Arop finished third.
Wanyonyi’s title-winning campaign includes several world-class competitions with Sedjati, who racked up three Diamond League wins before claiming bronze at the Olympics.
The Algerian had shocked Wanyonyi at the Paris Diamond League last year after winning the race in a photo finish. Wanyonyi was second.
They will be joined in Stockholm by French star Gabriel Tual, who finished third behind Sedjati and Wanyonyi at the Paris Diamond League last year, in one of the fastest 800m races in history.
Wanyonyi will have the company of two-time Commonwealth champion and Olympian Wycliffe Kinyamal, who is a six-time Diamond League meeting winner.
Kethobogile Haingura of Botswana, who was second behind Arop at the Miami Grand Slam earlier in May, as well as USA’s Josh Hoey and Bryce Hoppel, will also be in the mix.
Olympic bronze medallist Mary Moraa will be the lone Kenyan in women’s 800m.
The World Champion will be looking to cement her legacy ahead of the Tokyo World Championships set for September.
Moraa, widely known as the dancing queen, will be running her debut Diamond League race this season.
“Glad to announce that I will line up for my first Diamond League this season,” Moraa said ahead of the showdown.
She will be competing with, among others, world indoor silver medallist Jemma Reekie and Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Georgia Bell, both from Great Britain.
Athletes are competing for points in the 14 meets of the circuit in a bid to qualify for the two-day Wanda Diamond League Final, which will be held in Zurich on August 27 and 28.
Reigning World Under-20 5000m champion Andrew Kiptoo Alamisi will be anchoring the Kenyan charge to glory in the distance. He will be racing alongside Cornelius Kemboi and Denis Kipkoech.