Olympic 400m hurdles silver medalist Boniface Tumuti Mucheru of Kenya is on a mission to prove his achievement in Rio Games was no fluke.
Mucheru, who will be making his second quest in the Diamond League meetings, will compete in the 400m hurdles at Lausanne, Switzerland on Thursday and has put aside his celebration ceremony to focus on winning the race.
"I will celebrate later," said the Africa champion. "At the moment, it is crucial to win in Switzerland and then head home."
Until last year, Mucheru was not known. He won in his heat to qualify for the finals of the 400m hurdles but faded to seventh. He recorded a new personal best time of 48.79, which was a second better than his past best mark.
This year, before leaving for the Shanghai Diamond league in China in May, Mucheru suffered hamstring injuries on both legs that affected his performance where he clocked 50.16 to finish last.
However he returned stronger and put his focus on winning gold in Rio. He almost had his way but was edged out by American Kerron Clement, who won silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, triumphed in 47.73.
But for the 24-year old, he had done enough to have his name among the greats. It made him the first Kenyan to win an Olympic medal in 400m hurdles and that performance also saw him register a new personal best time of 47.78 seconds, which also enabled him to breaking the national record of 47.79 set by Nicholas Bett when winning the world title in Beijing last year.
Now he joins 31 medalists, including 10 Olympic champions, who will compete at Lausanne meeting.
In the 100m hurdles, Olympic champion Brianna Rollins will take on world record-holder Kendra Harrison, who did not qualify for the US Olympic team.
The addition of Sharika Nelvis and Jasmin Stowers means the race in Lausanne will have four of the five fastest U.S. women of all time.
Swiss hurdler Clelia Rard-Reuse, who finished fourth at the European Championships and was a semi-finalist in Rio, could not dream of any better way to finish her career.
"My fan club, my family and many people from my region will come and cheer for me," she said. "It will be very emotional."
Her teammate Lea Sprunger missed out on the 400m hurdles Olympic final, but in Lausanne she will face the three medalists from Rio: Dalilah Muhammad of the USA, Sara Slott Petersen of Denmark and USA's Ashley Spencer.
The men's 110m hurdles will also be a highlight as the top four from the Olympics have been confirmed with Omar McLeod, Orlando Ortega, Dimitri Bascou and Pascal Martinot-Lagarde all set to compete.
Elsewhere, world and Olympic champion Tianna Bartoletta will compete in the long jump while Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya lines up in her specialty.
Source : XINHUA
GMT 13:37 2018 Wednesday ,12 December
WADA views International Sambo Federation as one of best in fight against doping abuseGMT 17:20 2018 Monday ,26 November
Russian football top-league’s clubs spent over $209 mln on transfer activities in 2017GMT 17:16 2018 Wednesday ,10 October
Charges against Russian national footballers Kokorin, MamaevGMT 05:55 2018 Saturday ,06 October
Don King seeks $2 mln with CAS for Stiverne-Povetkin cancelled boutGMT 09:45 2018 Wednesday ,24 January
Farrell lone Englishman on Euro awards long listGMT 08:24 2018 Tuesday ,23 January
Brewers make offer to Japanese pitcher DarvishGMT 10:31 2018 Friday ,19 January
Man Utd set to make Sanchez highest-paid Premier League playerGMT 08:23 2018 Saturday ,13 January
Alvarez vs Golovkin rematch coming in May: reportMaintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©
Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©
Send your comments
Your comment as a visitor