Fury over IAAF stance
Africa athletes dismayed as Diamond League drops 5,000m from meets
Kenya’s Commonwealth and world junior 5,000m champion Edward Zakayo expressed concern on Friday over the future of distance runners following the axing of the event from the Diamond League.
Last week the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) announced the overhauling of its lucrative track and field series by dropping the 5,000m, reducing the number of events from 32 to 24 and leaving the 3,000m as the longest race in the Diamond League programme.
“I took great offence with the announcement to remove all the distance races from the Diamond League, since the decision means most of the distance athletes like me will not get the chance to make a smooth progress from one event to another,” said the talented 17-year-old high school student Zakayo, who is the reigning African 5,000m champion.
“Since the Diamond League is not offering the 10,000m, and both events having been dropped from the World U20 athletics championships, we have no alternative but to drop to the road races and the marathon, which will be very hard for the younger runners like me.”
Both Kenya and Ethiopia have criticised the decision as “illegitimate”, and even accused it of being made to “target African nations”, which have dominated the distance events.
Olympic and world marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge has also voiced his disapproval, saying the 5,000m had been crucial to his career, and helped him to be runner that he is.
“I believe in long-term careers where track and field can result into a great marathon career,” said Kipchoge, who stormed the 5,000m field when he defeated Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele and Moroccan great Hicham El Guerrouj to win the world championships title in Paris in 2003.
Described as the greatest marathon runner of the modern era, Kipchoge set a new world record time of 2:01:39 at the 2018 Berlin Marathon, breaking the previous record by 1minute and 18 seconds.
While the 5,000m will no longer be an official event on the Diamond League programme, individual meetings will still, however, have the opportunity to stage a 5,000m race outside of the 90-minute international broadcast window.
“The decision to reduce the Diamond League international broadcast window from 120 minutes to 90 minutes came after consultation with both current and prospective Diamond League broadcasters, the majority of whom requested a faster, sharper and slightly more concentrated product,” said IAAF chief executive Jon Ridgeon.
“In addition to the 90-minute international window, please be aware that the Diamond League meetings will also offer a further 30 minutes of additional coverage to their own domestic broadcaster, which will include extra events. If deemed to be of sufficient quality, this additional coverage will also be offered to the international broadcasters.” —