Before I proceed with the list of Kenyan athletes who are most expected to win gold medals in Paris, it is important to note that the Olympic qualification marks and times were very tough. This means that the level of competition in Paris will be similarly high, and any athlete who makes it there in the first place stands a chance to win a gold medal.
So, I hope it will be clear that this doesn’t mean that the athletes I didn’t mention here don’t stand a chance to win gold medals. In fact, it is my belief that this will definitely be an Olympic with the most surprises
I’ll begin with the gold medals Kenyan fans most anticipated and then proceed in that order to the expected ones.
Table of Contents
Faith Kipyegon’s gold medal in the women’s 1500m
Kenyan fans expect Faith Kipyegon to win a gold medal in the women’s 1500m event.
After easily winning the Kenyan national trials in both the 1500m and the 5000m, Kipyegon has proven that she is in good form and will be the runner to beat in Paris. On 7 July, she broke her previous 1500m world record to set a new one of 3:49.04.
Kipyegon will be going for a third successive 1500m Olympic gold in Paris.
The other Kenyans who will run with her in this event are Nelly Chepchirchir and Susan Ejore.
Gold in the women’s 5000m
There will be some tough competitions in the women’s 5000m event, with Tsegay Gudaf, the 5000m world record holder; Beatrice Chebet, the two-time world cross country champion and 10,000m world record holder; and Siffan Hassan, the reigning Olympic Champion. But in his current form, Kipyegon still remains the favourite runner to beat here, having won the Kenyan trials against the world’s number-one runner in the distance.
Chebet is ranked the best runner so far in the distance, which makes it almost a double surety for Kenya to win the gold medal here.
The women’s marathon
Kenya has two of the most experienced championship runners, and one resilient runner in the women’s marathon squad.
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Champion, Peres Jepchirchir will return to defend her title alongside Hellen Obiri and Sharon Lokedi, who substituted Brigid Kosgei.
Besides being the defending champion, Jepchirchir is an experienced championship racer with three World Half Marathon titles and three World Marathon Majors wins from the London, New York, and Boston marathons. She also holds the women’s only world record for the marathon at 2:16:16 and for the half marathon at 1:05:16.
Obiri is the other great championships runner with world titles from almost all quarters of running, from the world indoors to the world cross country to the outdoors championships. She also has world marathon major wins from the New York and Boston Marathons.
The gold medal is most likely to come out of one of these two great runners.
The men’s marathon
According to World Athletics, the two top-ranked runners this season and who will be running in Paris are Kenya’s Benson Kipruto (2:02:16) and Alexander Mutiso Munyao (2:03:11). Ethiopia’s Sisay Lemma, who is ranked world number two, unfortunately, won’t be part of the Ethiopian squad in Paris.
Kipruto made a statement by winning the Tokyo Marathon in March in a time that remains the world’s leading.
Munyao, too, in his marathon majors debut, boosted his confidence coming into the Olympics having won the London Marathon, which is at times referred to as the “major of the majors.”
Eliud Kipchoge, who needs no introduction, will be defending his Olympic title for a second time, having won the Rio 2016 and the Tokyo 2020 marathons. It will be exciting to watch him race against his long-time track rival, Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele.
Women’s 10,000m
Beatrice Chebet’s favourite event is obviously the 10,000m, for which she holds the world record. She set it this year in May at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting.
This will be his second 10,000m race after breaking the world record, and the toughest competitor she will face is Tsegay Gudaf, whom she had beaten in that particular race in Eugene.
Men’s 800m
Emmanuel Wanyonyi ran a spectacular 1:41.71 at high altitude to win the Kenyan trials for the Paris Olympics. This would have obviously translated into a world record had he put the same effort on a track at some lower altitude.
David Rudisha, who holds the world record for the event, was at the stadium and observed that it was an exceptional run. This gave him confidence that the winning streak in the 800m that began in 2008 would continue past the Paris Olympics.
However, there have been tough competitors in the 800m event recently, and it is one that will be most likely to see a new world record broken at the Games. Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati, who edged Wanyonyi at the recent Diamond League event in Paris by running 1:41.56 against 1:41.58, is seen as the main threat to Wanyonyi’s dream to win gold.
Women’s 800m
Mary Moraa, the reigning world champion in the women’s 800m event, will compete in Paris against the in-form Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain for the gold medal. While Moraa has a seasonal best time of 1:56.71, Hodgkinson recently ran 1:54.61 to win the London Diamond League.
Moraa, who qualified for both the 400m and 800m events, chose to compete in only one event at the Games. Hopefully, her decision will pay off.