Best Diamond League Moment Ever: Long Distance

Mo Farah’s dramatic farewell triumph in the Diamond League Final in 2017 ranks among the most breathtaking moments in athletics history. We will never forget Almaz Ayana hurling down the gauntlet with a superb performance in Shanghai in 2015. And Beatrice Chepkoech’s heroics in Monaco in 2018 mean that she is among the very exclusive group of athletes to have broken a world record on the Diamond League circuit. 

Yet nothing but nothing compares to the one-shoed exploits of one Kenyan steeplechase star in 2018. In the long list of long distance highlights in Diamond League history, Conseslus Kipruto tops them all. 

Kipruto came into the 2018 Diamond League final at Zurich as the strong favourite to win the title. Diamond League Champion since 2016, he had topped the qualifying table thanks to victories in Birmingham and Rome. With in-form compatriot Benjamin Kigen absent, only American and Moroccan rivals Evan Jager and Soufiane El Bakkali looked capable of denying the Kenyan a third successive Diamond Trophy.

Yet with just a quarter of the race run, disaster struck for the Kenyan when the shoe flew off his left foot, leaving him wearing just one spike. A true professional, Kipruto didn’t miss a beat, staying on course while the forlorn, footless running shoe was picked up by a Weltklasse volunteer. 

With six laps to go, victory seemed nigh on impossible. El Bakkali, still in two shoes, pounced on the opportunity and established a firm lead at the front of the pack, but he couldn’t shake the Kenyan. Kipruto kept on the Moroccan’s tail through the final water jump, made up further ground as he stumbled on the final jump and ultimately caught El Bakkali on the line to send the Letzigrund Stadion into ecstasy. 

"It was hard and painful to run without another shoe, but I just had strong spirit to never give up, the crowd was amazing and I keep going to the winning," Kipruto tweeted later. 

Click on the video to relive the Kenyan’s one-shoe wonder performance.