What to look forward to on the distance events on Day 2

This is Justin Lagat’s preview of the distance races on day 2. Justin is in Budapest and enjoying the event and meeting some of the people he has seen and heard about for years.

What to look forward to on the distance events on Day 2:

Apparently, everything is set to get better and better in the coming days at the Budapest 23 World Championships as athletes keep advancing from rounds to semi-finals and to the finals in some of the events.

Tonight, we get to know whether an African athlete gets to make history by winning the 100m gold medal at the championships as Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala, Akani Simbine of South Africa, and Letsile Tebogo of Botswana present a strong squad from the continent. In the Semi-finals, Omanyala will still get to run against Noah Lyles of the USA and Marcell Jacobs of Italy, Tebogo against Fred Kerley, and Simbine against Christian Coleman.

In another exciting final of the evening, Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei has never missed to medal in the 10,000m event at the World Championships since 2017. He will be in hoping to defend his world title in a strong field in the men’s final on the second day of the championships. The world record holder of the 5000m and 10,000m events has not run in the longer track distance event this year, but his time of 12:41.61, which he ran in the 5000m race to finish second behind Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi in June, is an indication that he is in good form.

Aregawi himself leads a strong contingent of Ethiopians, including Selemon Barega and 17-year-old Yismaw Dillu. Daniel Ebenyo Simiu leads the Kenyan squad together with Nicholas Kimeli and Bnard Kibet.

But, the 10,000m event is no longer a preserve of Eastern African runners, and stiff competition should be expected from runners from North America, including Mohammed Amed of Canada and William Kincaid from the USA.

Continuation of what happened on the first day also happens in both the men’s and women’s 1500m races. Faith Kipyegon and Sifan Hassan will be in the same semi-final, meeting to gauge each other ahead of the finals. The first six athletes will proceed to the finals.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen will be in the second semi-final of the men’s event against Timothy Cheruiyot, who narrowly made it to the semi-finals, and Reynold Cheruiyot. Abel Kipsang will be in the other heat with Mohammed Katir and Yared Nguse. The question is, who will proceed to the finals, and who will miss to do so?