World 1500m silver medallist Elijah Manang’oi at the 2015 World Championships.
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 25 –Elijah Manang’oi will take on an ambitious plot to lower the 1500m World Record during the Monaco leg of the IAAF Diamond League on July 21, 19 years since Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj took almost one and a half minutes off to set the record at 3:26.00.
The 2015 World Silver medalist is however coy on the attempt, but says Monaco is his biggest ambition and anything is possible.
“Well I won’t talk much about that now because it depends a lot on how the body responds. If it responds well, then maybe it will come; probably towards the end of the season in Monaco, it might happen,” Manang’oi said with a hugely confident look on his face.
“I will run three or four Diamond Leagues then start preparing for the World Championships in London. Before going to the United Kingdom, I will also be having an eye on Monaco because that is my biggest target this season,” the 24-year old added.
Monaco is known for its favorable fast course and Manang’oi who has a personal best of 3:29.67, coincidentally set in Rome in 2015 is aptly confident he can charge for the record.
He feels his body has recovered slightly above 90 percent after picking up an injury that put him off the Olympics in the semi-finals in Rio de Janeiro last year. He has so far run one Diamond League race, winning the opening leg in Doha in a relatively slow time of 3:31.90.
“The Diamond League is very competitive because we have very strong athletes competing. The likes of Absel (Kiprop) Silas (Kiplagat) are giving tough competition as well as the Morrocans. But I know myself and I know what I am capable of doing,” Manang’oi noted.
He added; “I just need to maintain myself within the top two and winning the overall title will not be a tough task.”
Also among his prime targets this season is graduating his silver medal from the Beijing Worlds in 2015 to a gold in London, but he believes it will need a lot of hard work and discipline.
“It’s been a lot of hard work coming back from that injury set back and I feel I am almost at 90 percent okay. Of course the World title is also among my ambitions but we need to go a step at a time and hopefully, things work out,” he added.
Manang’oi leads the Diamond League table heading to this weekend’s Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, United States where he will lead a stellar cast in the Bowerman Mile race with Kiprop and Silas Kiplagat, his strongest competitors also lining up in the same field.
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