02 May 2019

Nijel Amos and Kenya’s Emmanuel Korir will renew their 800 metres rivalry today at the Doha Diamond League meeting.

The duo always leave spectators on their feet as they are strong competitors and do not have much respect for each other on the track.

Amos, who has been engaged in intensive training at his base in the USA, looks fit for the race.

In an interview, Amos said he was looking forward to his fourth diamond trophy, adding that their training schedule was designed for the 2019 IAAF World Championships.

“The world championships are more important to me, as they are the only championships I don’t have a medal from in my career, so I’m using this races as part of the training towards the championship,” he said.

He said he would just flow with the race as they were still working on their winter programme, and that they were yet to work on his speed. He added that he would bank on his endurance during the race.

Other athletes on the line up include Qatari middle-distance runners, Abubaker Abdalla, Jamal Hairane, Rabi Mubarak and Abdirahman Hassan. There is also American Donavan Brazier, Spanish Álvaro de Arriba López, Kenyans Wyclife Kinyamal, Jonathan Kitilit, Ferguson Rotich and Cornelius Tuwei, Polish Adam Kszczot and the tried and tested Dutchman, Bram Som is expected to be the pacemaker of the strong field.

Athletics coach, Lentswe Charles said the field had the world’s fastest athlete this year in Abdalla who ran 1:44.33 seconds in April.

He said the battle was going to be between Amos, who opened his 400m account 10 days ago by slashing a remarkable 46 seconds  from his previous race, and Korir who would be opening his outdoor season.

He said if the first lap of the race was slow, the runners would have a tight contest in the second half because they would have reserved enough energy to go all out in the last 200 metres.

“The race should be an absolute spectacle  with  Amos confronting Korir, who also has blazing speed, and the Dutch pacesetter, Som will determine the race winner as he leads the pack and takes them around 50 seconds on the first lap,” he said.

He said 800 metres was the   most unforgiving of all endurance races and was metabolically defined as 40 per cent  aerobic. He added that the athlete with a strong endurance would win, as it was more about power unlike the 1500 metres.

“Success will go to the one who has the skill to know and manage pace variations, as each race may not be run the same way because of the competition factor.

The athlete should be capable of that distribution.

I predict the winner to be either Amos or Korir but not ruling out Donovan Brazier. The time may range from 1:44.00 to 1:46.00 seconds,” he said. ENDS