Jacob Krop/ FILEThe 2022 World 5,000m silver medallist Jacob Krop and 2023 African bronze medallist Cornelius Kemboi will have an early opportunity to deliver Kenya's first accolades at the inaugural World Ultimate Championships when they line up in the men's 5,000m final tonight (Friday).
The race is scheduled for 8:36 pm (Kenyan time) at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary. Adding further intrigue to the showdown is a lucrative winner's prize of Sh19.4 million ($150,000) as well as a winner's trophy.
Krop and Kemboi have been thrown into a world-class field featuring some of the finest distance runners from Europe, Africa and the United States.
Among their fiercest rivals are Ethiopia's Addisu Yihune, the 2022 World U20 5,000m champion and his compatriot Biniam Mehary, as well as Burundi's Egide Ntakarutimana on the continental front. The European charge has Olympic 5,000m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway.
The American challenge is equally formidable, spearheaded by Olympic 1,500m champion Cole Hocker, alongside Graham Blanks, Nico Young, Parker Wolfe and Grant Fisher.
For Krop, Budapest offers a chance to write a sharper chapter than his previous appearance in the Hungarian capital at the 2023 World Athletics Championships. At the 2023 World Championships, he claimed bronze in that final after clocking 13:12.28, finishing behind Ingebrigtsen (13:11.30) and Spain's Mohamed Katir (13:11.44).
The Kenyan heads into Budapest after a demanding 2026 campaign. He opened his season indoors with back-to-back runner-up finishes over 3,000m at the Karlsruhe Meeting in Germany (7:38.64) and the Meeting Hauts-de-France (7:34.68). Krop narrowly missed a global podium at the World Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland, settling for fourth in 7:36.76.
His outdoor season burst into life at the Kip Keino Classic, where he battled to third place over 5,000m in 13:13.59, behind Kemboi (13:09.31) and Frankline Kibet (13:10.70). He then endured a difficult start to his Diamond League campaign, fading to eighth over 3,000m in Shanghai (7:28.72) before finishing 12th over 5,000m in Xiamen in 13:01.51.
The turning point came in Paris, where Krop rediscovered his rhythm with a superb second-place finish, timing 12:55.22. He followed that with fourth in Monaco (12:53.72), 14th in Lausanne (13:13.29), and concluded the Diamond League season with seventh in the Brussels final in 12:51.23.
Kemboi, meanwhile, arrives seeking to go one better than his impressive third-place finish at the Brussels Diamond League final, where he clocked 12:47.29.
Despite that podium, his Diamond League campaign proved largely frustrating. He finished fifth over 3,000m in Shanghai (7:27.46), eighth in the 5,000m at Xiamen (13:08.45), 10th in Oslo (12:56.02), eighth in Paris (12:58.10), and fifth in both Monaco (12:57.36) and Lausanne (12:59.33). The 5,000m specialist also narrowly missed a medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, finishing fourth in 13:24.99.
Elsewhere, national outdoor and indoor 400m record holder Mercy Oketch will take to the track in the women's 400m semi-finals at 7:38 pm, with a place in Saturday's final at stake.
