Asbel Kiprop in the mens 1500m Final at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Moscow 2013 (© Getty Images)
Two-time world champion Asbel Kiprop of Kenya will be on a revenge mission, having lost out on the African 1500m title to Djibouti’s Ayanleh Souleiman in Marrakech’s Great Stadium last month.
The pair will be Africa team-mates and, while Kiprop has not had the best of times of late – finishing 12th in the 1500m at the IAAF Diamond League final in Brussels last Friday – he did win the Emsley Carr Mile in Birmingham, adding his name to a winner’s list that includes the likes of Kip Keino, Jim Ryun, Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett, Filbert Bayi, John Waller, Said Aouita, Hicham El Guerrouj and even Haile Gebrselassie.
Souleiman finished runner-up to Kiprop in that high-prestige race but earlier this year he added world indoor gold to the world 800m bronze he won in Moscow last year.
Both men have broken 3:30 this year, as has Asia-Pacific’s Nick Willis, who won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The field also includes the gold and silver medal winners from the European Championships in Zurich: Frenchman Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad and Norway’s Henrik Ingebrigtsen.
Simon Turnbull for the IAAF
