Kenyan trio Timothy Cheruiyot, Brian Komen, and Reynold Cheruiyot Kipkorir eased into the men’s 1,500m semis on Friday as the track and field events kicked off at the Paris Olympics.
Reigning African champion Komen had to dig deep to finish 2nd in the first heat at the Stade de France’s Purple track, clocking 3 minutes, 36.31 seconds behind Britain’s Josh Kerr, who won in a personal best time of 3:35.83.
Cheruiyot, the 2019 World Champion and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medallist, shook off stiff competition to finish 5th in the 2nd heat in 3:35.39.
Ermias Girma of Ethiopia won the heat in 3:35.21, 0.006 seconds ahead of American Cole Hocker, who finished second.
World cross country champion in mixed relay and former world under-20 champion Reynold Kipkorir Cheruiyot finished 4th in the last heat to book his slot for Sunday’s semis after clocking 3:37.12 behind defending champion Jakob Ingebrigsten, who was contending for the 3rd position.
Dutch Steffan Nillesen won the heat, crossing the finish line in a time of 3 minutes, 36.77 seconds.
Unlike in the previous editions, all athletes who finished beyond the 6th position in each heat will go through a repechage round tomorrow for a chance in Sunday’s semi-final.
