Timothy Cheruiyot, Conseslus Kipruto left off Kenya Olympic track team

By OlympicTalkJun 19, 2021, 8:05 AM EDT

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World 1500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot and Olympic 3000m steeplechase champion Conseslus Kipruto were not named on Kenya’s Olympic roster after not finishing in the top three of their races at their Olympic Trials.

Cheruiyot had not finished worse than second in a 1500m in four years, and lost just three times since the start of 2018, according to Tilastopaja.org. But on Saturday in Nairobi, he was passed for third place in the final straightaway, then reportedly limped off to a medical tent.

Kipruto, the lone runner to win the same individual event at the 2016 Olympics, 2017 Worlds and 2019 Worlds, dropped out in the early laps of the steeple on Saturday, according to broadcast commentary. Kipruto has started three races since the start of 2020 and didn’t finish any of them.

In November 2019, Kipruto pled not guilty after being charged with having sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl and was released on bail. Kipruto faced at least 20 years in prison if convicted, according to Kenya’s sexual offenses laws. It’s unclear where the case stands.

Athletics Kenya reportedly has discretion to pick somebody who finishes outside the top three for the third and final spot in an event. But the federation announced its Olympic team at the conclusion of Trials, printing and tweeting the roster without Cheruiyot or Kipruto.

The 2015 and 2017 World men’s 1500m champions are out of the Olympics due to doping bans. The 2012 and 2016 Olympic champions are Algerian Taoufik Makhloufi, who last raced in October 2019, and Matthew Centrowitz, favored to make the team at the U.S. Olympic Trials next weekend.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen, a 20-year-old Norwegian who was fourth at 2019 Worlds, is the the second-fastest man in this Olympic cycle after Cheruiyot.

In the men’s steeple, Rio silver medalist Evan Jager is out after missing the U.S. Olympic Trials due to leg muscle tears. Lamecha Girma, the 2019 World silver medalist, did not race the Ethiopian Olympic Trials.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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World 1500M World Champion, Timothy Cheruiyot limping off to the medical tent. He finished 4th at the trials. The first two athletes across male the team while the 3rd athlete will be picked by a panel of selectors..#Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/qbjq7C0cuU

— Lynne Wachira (@WachiraLynne) June 19, 2021

Faith Kipyegon smashes women’s 1500m world record in Florence

By OlympicTalkJun 2, 2023, 4:01 PM EDT

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Kenyan Faith Kipyegon smashed the women’s 1500m world record, clocking 3 minutes, 49.11 seconds at a Diamond League meet in Florence, Italy, on Friday.

Kipyegon, a two-time Olympic champion and two-time world champion, took 96 hundredths of a second off Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba‘s world record from 2015. Kipyegon began the day as the second-fastest woman in history at 3:50.37.

The 29-year-old was already the most decorated female miler in history, the only one with four global 1500m titles. Her Olympic gold medals in 2016 and 2021 were separated by a 22-month maternity leave from competition (that included 12 months without running).

Kipyegon was the eighth of nine children growing on a farm in the Kenyan Rift Valley. She was a soccer player at age 14 when she lined up for a one-kilometer run in PE class, according to World Athletics.

“I won that race by 20 meters,” Kipyegon said, according to World Athletics in 2016. “It is only then I knew I could run fast and be a good athlete.”

In 2010, a barefooted Kipyegon placed fourth in the world cross country championships junior race as, at age 16, the youngest finisher in the top 21. The next year, she won it. The year after that, she made her Olympic debut at age 18. By 2015, Jenny Simpson, arguably the best American miler in history, had a nickname or her: “The Sniper,” for her ability to run people down in the final lap.

She ran her last lap on Friday in under 59 seconds.

Next year, Kipyegon can bid to become the second person to win the same individual Olympic track race three times, joining Usain Bolt. She said last year that she may shift to the 5000m after the 2024 Paris Games, according to Olympics.com.

Also in Florence, world champion Fred Kerley extended a year-plus win streak in the men’s 100m, prevailing in 9.94 seconds over Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala (10.04) and American Trayvon Bromell (10.09).

Full meet results are here.

Earlier, Dutchwoman Femke Bol won the 400m hurdles in 52.43 seconds, the fastest time ever recorded this early in a year. Bol, the Olympic bronze medalist and world silver medalist, is the world’s fastest this year by eight tenths of a second. World record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has yet to race this outdoor season and could bypass the 400m hurdles entirely for the flat 400m.

Erriyon Knighton, a 19-year-old American, took the 200m in 19.89 seconds to rank third in the world this year. Knighton may be the favorite at July’s USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships given Noah Lyles, who won the 2022 World title in an American record 19.31, has a bye into August’s worlds as defending champion.

World champion Grant Holloway won the 110m hurdles in 13.04 seconds. Holloway, the world’s fastest man this year at 13.01, outsprinted Devon Allen, the world’s fastest man in 2022, in two Diamond League head-to-heads this week.

Spain’s Mohamed Katir won the 5000m in 12:52.09, edging Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha by three hundredths. Woody Kincaid (12:54.40) and Joe Klecker (12:55.16) ran personal bests to move into Nos. 3 and 4 on the U.S. all-time list behind Grant Fisher and Bernard Lagat.

Olympic champion Valarie Allman won the discus in her first matchup with China’s Feng Bin since Feng won the world title last July. Allman, who has the world’s top nine throws this year, prevailed with a 65.96-meter toss, five centimeters farther than Feng.

Olympic and world champion Katie Moon won a pole vault that included the top five women from last August’s worlds. Moon cleared 4.71 meters and has the world’s top clearance this season of 4.81.

The Diamond League season continues with a meet in Paris next Friday, live on Peacock. McLaughlin-Levrone is scheduled to make her outdoor season debut in the flat 400m, an event she is also expected to contest at July’s USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships. If McLaughlin-Levrone finishes in the top three at USATF Outdoors, she will choose either the 400m or the 400m hurdles to race at August’s world championships, her coach said last month.

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2023 French Open women’s singles draw, scores

By OlympicTalkJun 2, 2023, 1:51 PM EDT

At the French Open, Iga Swiatek of Poland eyes a third title at Roland Garros and a fourth Grand Slam singles crown overall.

The tournament airs live on NBC Sports, Peacock and Tennis Channel through championship points in Paris.

Swiatek, the No. 1 seed from Poland, can join Serena Williams and Justine Henin as the lone women to win three or more French Opens since 2000.

Having turned 22 on Wednesday, she can become the youngest woman to win three French Opens since Monica Seles in 1992 and the youngest woman to win four Slams overall since Williams in 2002.

FRENCH OPEN: Broadcast Schedule | Men’s Draw

But Swiatek is not as dominant as in 2022, when she went 16-0 in the spring clay season during an overall 37-match win streak.

She retired from her last pre-French Open match with a right thigh injury and said it wasn’t serious. Before that, she lost the final of another clay-court tournament to Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.

Sabalenka, the No. 2 seed, and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, the No. 4 seed and Wimbledon champion, are the top challengers in Paris.

No. 3 Jessica Pegula, the highest-seeded American man or woman, was eliminated in the third round.

No. 6 Coco Gauff, runner-up to Swiatek last year, is the best hope to become the first American to win a Grand Slam singles title since Sofia Kenin at the 2020 Australian Open. The 11-major drought is the longest for U.S. women since Seles won the 1996 Australian Open.

MORE: All you need to know for 2023 French Open

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2023 French Open Women’s Singles Draw

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