Kenya’s Amos Serem ended 2-time Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali’s three-year winning streak to win his first men’s 3000 metres steeplechase Diamond League title at the Allianz Memorial van Damme – Wanda Diamond League Final in Brussels on Friday night.
Serem easily outsprint El Bakkali in the final stretch to win in 8:06.90. The Moroccan settled for the second position in 8:08.60 while Tunisia’s Mohamed Amin Jhinaoui (8:09.68) finished third.
“Today, the race was so good. I was competing against the Olympic champion El Bakkali, and I won,” said an elated Amos Serem after the race.
“I felt really great today, I believed I could but I didn’t expect it. But I am so happy to close my season like this and to hopefully come back next year. I will prepare for next year and try to be even better!”
For Soufiane El Bakkali, it was a tough day at the office. “It was the last outing of the year so I was really tired,” said the Moroccan. “After the Olympics, where you were 100% focused on, it’s difficult to keep that same energy.”
“I came to win, but the race was tough especially the last lap. But I am really happy with the whole season, I have done a good job, especially with the injury. Now, I will go back home and take some days off before getting back to training, because next year is very important with the World Championships too,” he added.
Kenya’s world 800m champion Mary Moraa won the women’s 800m race in 1:56.56, outpacing Britain’s Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Georgia Bell (1:57.50) and Jamaica’s Natoya Goule-Toppin (1:58.94).
“I’m so happy to get the trophy back after I lost it last year. It was a hard competition, so I’m proud of myself for getting the Diamond [trophy] back,” said Moraa.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the men’s 1500 metres. The Norwegian bounced back from his fourth-place finish in the Olympic final with a resounding win in 3:30.37, besting Kenyan Timothy Cheruiyot (3:30.93) and American Olympic champion Cole Hocker (3:30.94).
Ethiopian athletes dominated the podium in the men’s 5000m.
Berihu Aregawi clocked one of the fastest 5000m performances in history to claim victory with a time of 12:43.66, ahead of Hagos Gebrhiwet (12:44.25) and Telahun Haile Bekele (12:45.63). Kenya’s Nicholas Kipkorir was fourth in 12:49.59.
In other African results in Brussels, Zambian Muzala Samukonga (44.69) and Ivorian Marie-Josée Talou-Smith (11.05) finished the end of the season fiesta with third places in the men’s 400 metres and women’s 100 metres respectively.
“I´m happy with the result. It was really cold to sprint, but did not expect to run faster tonight,” said Talou-Smith after the race. “This season was really complicated for me with the injury that I had. Mentally it wasn’t easy to come back, but I managed to do it.”
“I’m always happy to run here in Brussels with the amazing crowd. How do I manage to stay at this level for so many years? I owe it all to my faith and the hard work that I did over the years,” she added.
The 16 Wanda Diamond League Champions on Friday:
Women:
- 100 metres: Julien Alfred
- 400 metres: Marileidy Paulino
- 800 metres: Mary Moraa
- High jump: Yaroslava Mahuchikh
- Triple jump: Leyanis Perez Hernandez
- Discus throw: Valarie Allman
- Shot put: Sarah Mitton
Men:
- 100 metres: Ackeem Blake
- 110 metres hurdles: Sasha Zhoya
- 400 metres: Charles Dobson
- 1500 metres: Jakob Ingebrigtsen
- 3000 metres steeplechase: Amos Serem
- 5000 metres: Berihu Aregawi
- Pole vault: Mondo Duplantis
- Discus throw: Matthew Denny
- Long jump: Tajay Gayle
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