Doha 2025Diamond League; How it went Down
Doha qatar(Photo Bt Gitura Kihuria)
By gitura Kihuria
Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com
Kenyans’ vibrant community in Qatar trooped in large numbers on 16 May, 2025 to support their own athletes in what was expected to be a thrilling performance in the women’s 3,000m steeple chase and women’s 1,500m race.
Gate 3 was reserved for Kenyans fans, but with the continuous streaming large numbers, Kenyans were allowed to access Qatar Sports Club through other gates.
The stadium was hugely a Kenyan affair only interrupted by a section of Ethiopian fans.
Other track events that Kenyans were looking forward to grab medals were men’s 800m, 5,000m and perhaps a medal from men’s javelin represented by 2015 world javelin champion and 2016 Olympics silver medallist Julius Yego.
The performance by men’s 800m and 5,000m races where Wycliffe Kinyamal managed a bronze and Reynold Cheruiyot a gold respectively brought out an ecstatic thrilling cheer from the Kenyan crowd and this was a sure sign of what was to come for the long awaited 3,000 women’s steeple chase.
The chants were dizzying with fans in Kenyan jerseys singing and waving the Kenyan flags.
The 1,500m women’s race line-up of two Kenyans Nelly Chepchirchir and Susan Lokayo Ejore elicited a loud cheer even before the race began and continued to buzz after the two dominated the race to finish with a gold and silver respectively.
As you can imagine, the stadium was ecstatic.
But the final icing on the cake was women’s 3,000 steeple chase. It was a thrilling rematch against arch rivals Kenya’s Faith Cherotich and Kenyan born Bahrain Winfred Yavi.
Yavi won Olympics gold in Paris in 2024 while Cherotich came third with a bronze.
However, Cherotich upstaged the Bahraini at the Diamond League in Brussels, Belgium in September 14, last year.
The line-up featured a strong field including Ethiopian Almayew, 2022 Olympics champion.
When the race began, it became clear it was a three affair when Almayew, Yavi and Cherotich – nicknamed Last Born – broke from the rest and Almayew led them for what promised to be a tight race.
However, in the last hundred meters, Yavi led the race with Cherotich managing to keep up behind her and it’s only after the remaining fifty metres that Faith Cherotich pulled out the last stops to edge out Yavi in the blistering race to clinch the gold medal.
The crowd was ecstatic and cheers were deafening. Kenyans managed to bring the house down, as they say, and the chants were a continuous buzz.
When Faith Cherotich carried and waved the Kenyan flag around the stadium, fans waved their hands up and down, shouting “igwee” (King) in unison and it was a moment to be proud to being a Kenyan.
Our true ambassadors never disappoint.
Yego managed a dismal ninth position in the javelin competition behind Indian Neeraj Chopra, Tokyo Olympics champion and who made history in 2022 to become the first Indian to win the Diamond League and who managed a silver. The gold was won by German Julian Weber.
