Timothy Cheruiyot and Abel Kipsang have both qualified for Saturday’s 1500m final at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham after cruising through the semi-final round on Thursday.
Kipsang finished third in his Heat, while Cheruiyot finished second.
In Heat One, Cheruiyot, the 2019 World Champion, was the first to take the course. He started near the back for the first two and a half laps, but with around 600m to go, he began to close the gap on the leaders.
At the start, Cheruiyot took the lead and maintained it until the final 20m of the race, when he eased off to ensure he was within the automatic qualification slots, reserving some energy for the final.
He finished in 3:37.82, trailing Australia’s Oliver Hoare, who ran in 3:37.57.
“It was a good race and my body feels much better than when I competed at the World Championships,” said Cheruiyot, adding that he is in Birmingham to collect the title, having bagged silver at the 2018 Gold Coast Games in Australia. “I will need to plan well with my coaches for Saturday’s final.”
Kipsang, meanwhile, ran 3:48.63 in a slower Heat but still qualified automatically. Jake Wightman, the newly minted world champion, won the Heat in 3:48.34, with Englishman Mathew Stonier coming in second in 3:48.50.
Kipsang had made his move on the ball and kept up until the last stretch when Wightman surged ahead of him, but the Kenyan had done just enough to keep an automatic qualifying spot.
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Kenya failed to win a single medal at the World Championships in Eugene two weeks ago and will aim to rectify that in Birmingham.
Meanwhile, Reynold Cheruiyot defeated a tough field to win the 1,500m gold at the current World Under 20 Championships in Cali, Colombia on Thursday morning.
Cheruiyot finished in 3:35.83, ahead of Ethiopia’s Ermias Girma (3:37.24), with another Kenyan, Daniel Kimaiyo, rounding out the podium in 3:37.43.
The Kenyans, together with the Ethiopian combo of Girma and Adihana Kasaye, were in the front of the pack from the start. However, Cheruiyot secured the title with a stunning kick on the home straight.
The Kenyan duo had grabbed the lead from the outset, opting to race ahead rather than risk being shut down by the police. The Ethiopian two also followed through, reducing the amount of ground they had to travel in the last lap.
At the start, Kasaye assumed the lead, attempting to close the distance, with Girma trailing and Cheruiyot wedged. Kimaiyo had begun to fade, and the race appeared to be between the Ethiopian couple and the Kenyan.
However, in the home stretch, the lanky Cheruiyot turned on the afterburners, pedalling down a solid finishing kick to defeat the Ethiopian, who did not react to the kick.
While Cheruiyot glided for gold, his compatriot Kimaiyo, who had appeared to be out of medal contention, pushed deep into his energy reserves to find some finishing power, passing down Kasaye for bronze.
