Paris 2024: Reynold counting on Budapest experience as 1500m battle starts

Kenya's 1500m runner Reynold Cheruiyot will be counting on his experience at last year’s World Championships to reach the final as he makes his debut at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games with the heats on Friday.

Reynold, who won the World U20 title in 2022, clocked 3:30.78 to finish eighth at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

With compatriots 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Timothy Cheruiyot and Brian Komen, he believes they have what it takes to reach the final as the round one races start at the Stade de France at 12:10pm.

Ryenold trained with Komen at Team Kenya’s camp in Eldoret before flying to Paris on Monday night.

“I have prepared well and I’m ready for the battle. I was at the World Championships last year, it was a bit tricky because I did a double but I thank God I reached the final. I’m now targeting to reach the final in the Olympics and see what happens from there,” her told Standard Sports in Paris.

"We have agreed that we all fight in the heats and reach the final then strategise on how to win medals."

While he downplayed feeling any pressure ahead of the competition, he says that teamwork and the experience of Timothy will play a key role in winning medals for Kenya. Asbel Kiprop  won Kenya’s last gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“I don’t have any pressure,  we just have to work as a team and bring the medals back to Kenya. Timothy is more experienced than all of us but there is no pacemaker at the Olympics and anyone can win the race. We will to give our best,” said Reynold.

“It is not easy to qualify for the Olympics and I thank God for making it happen. I now feel teamwork is good in such an event as it will help us destabilise our opponents. “

Meanwhile, Jakob Ingebrigtsen v Josh Kerr has fast become one of the sport’s great rivalries.

“It’s a good fight,” Ingebrigtsen said. “Some of my competitors have clearly taken a step in the right direction but not a big step – not as big of a step that maybe is needed to be the favourite in Paris. But I think if anything, this is going to be an exciting summer.”

Running 3:26.73 in Rome, Ingebrigtsen strengthened his place at No.4 on the world all-time list and beat many of the athletes who will likely line up among his challengers in Paris.

Olympic bronze medallist Kerr, meanwhile, has raced just twice since his Eugene mile win, in the UK Championships 800m heats and final. Prior to that 3:45.34 national record-breaking performance in Eugene that places him sixth all time, the 26-year-old won the world indoor 3000m title on home soil in Glasgow.

Their head-to-head record stands at 8-1 in Ingebrigtsen’s favour when it comes to 1500m finals, but since his Olympic title win in Tokyo, the Norwegian has been unable to assert dominance in the discipline on the global stage.

If Ingebrigtsen can do it this time, a win in Paris would see him become just the second man after Sebastian Coe in 1980 and 1984 to win two Olympic 1500m titles.

But if Ingebrigtsen can't replicate his recent form in the French capital, then Kerr and a number of other challengers will be ready to kick.

Timothy Cheruiyot won the world title in 2019, claimed world silver in 2017 and finished second to Ingebrigtsen in Tokyo.

The 28-year-old, who set his PB of 3:28.28 in 2021, also followed Ingebrigtsen over the line in Oslo and Monaco this year, running 3:28.71 – his fourth-fastest time – at the latter.

If the race is fast paced, then Yared Nuguse will also be a strong contender. The 25-year-old finished fifth in Budapest but claimed world indoor 3000m silver behind Kerr in Glasgow and ran a North American 1500m record of 3:29.02 in Oslo last year. Cole Hocker and Hobbs Kessler join him on the US team.

Kenya’s Brian Komen took three-and-a-half seconds off his PB to run 3:28.80 for third – one place ahead of Nuguse – in Monaco and will want to build on that in Paris. Neil Gourley was fifth in Monaco and he joins Kerr on the British team.

Home hopes are led by Azeddine Habz, who won the Diamond League race in Marrakech and ran 3:30.80 for third place in Oslo, one spot ahead of Portugal’s Isaac Nader in a PB of 3:30.84.

Others hoping to feature in the final will be Australia’s Oliver Hoare and Norway’s world bronze medallist Narve Gilje Nordas, while 19-year-old Niels Laros of the Netherlands steps up after running a world U20 1000m record of 2:14.37 in July.