Emmanuel Wanyonyi faces star-studded field at Oslo Diamond League

Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi is set to renew his rivalry with Algeria's Djamel Sedjati and France’s Gabriel Tual in a high-class 800m at the Wanda Diamond League (DL) meeting in Oslo on Thursday, 12 June.

The reigning Wanda Diamond League champion, who will first line up for the same race in Rabat, Morocco, before heading to the Norwegian meet, won his second successive DL last season, just weeks after claiming Olympic gold in Paris, is the favourite.

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His title-winning campaign included several world-class clashes with Sedjati, who racked up three Diamond League wins before claiming bronze at the Olympics. Wanyonyi is hoping to extend his dominance in one of the most fiercely competitive disciplines as he aims for a third straight 800m DL title in 2025.

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Having lost his 800m season-opener, on the international stage, at the Kingston Grand Slam to world champion Marco Arop, expectations are high for 20-year-old Wanyonyi in his coming races.

After opening his season with a 2km victory in February’s national cross country championships, Wanyonyi lay low until April, where he made headlines at the Grand Slam Track, racing the 1500m distance, and taking down the Olympic podium of Cole Hocker, Josh Kerr, and Yared Nuguse at Kingston.

He completed the meet with a second-place finish, behind nemesis Arop.

On Saturday, 26 April, he was back on the roads, this time at the Adizero: Roads to Records one-mile road race, carrying the day with a 3:52.45 show against a formidable field that had the American duo of Hobbs Kessler and Nico Young completing the podium in 3:54.34 and 3:54.50, respectively.

Meanwhile, Tual, who finished third behind Sedjati and Wanyonyi at the Paris Diamond League last year, in one of the fastest 800m races in history, adds to the field’s depth.

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Wanyonyi is carrying a 1:41.11 personal best to the race and going up against 1:41.46 and 1:41.61 runners in Sedjati and Tual, David Rudisha's meet record of 1:42.04 from 2010 is truly in danger.

The three men will be joined in Oslo by Spain’s Mohammed Attaoui and Kenya’s Aaron Kemei Cheminingwa. Attaoui is number eleven in the world all-time with 1:42.04, while Cheminingawa is number thirteen in the world all-time with 1:42.08.

Swedish-Norwegian Andreas Kramer, with a Swedish record of 1:43.13, Tobias Grønstad with a PB of 1:44.57, and Ole Jakob Høsteland Solbu, a 1:45.55 runner, add to the field’s depth.