Wycliffe Kinyamal

Wycliffe Kinyamal (born 2 July 1997) is a Kenyan male middle-distance runner who competes in the 800 metres. He gold medaled at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and holds a personal best of 1:43.12 minutes.

Wycliffe Kinyamal
Personal information
Born (1997-07-02) 2 July 1997
Trans Mara District, Kenya
Weight69 kg (152 lb)[1]
Sport
SportAthletics
Event(s)800 metres
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)800 m: 1:43.12 (2018)

Born in Trans Mara District,[1] he made his first impact regionally at the 2016 East African Junior Athletics Championships, winning the 800 m.[2] He placed third at the Kenyan World Junior trials later that year, thus was not picked for the national team.[3] He had initially just focused on the high jump and took up running when he had completed high school at Mogonga Secondary School.[4]

Kinyamal established himself as an elite level runner in the 2017 season with performances on the European track circuit. At the FBK Games he set a personal best of 1:45.65 minutes to place second behind Thijmen Kupers,[5] then won the Palio Città della Quercia in a meeting record of 1:43.94 minutes.[6] The latter performance ranked him seventh in the world on time for that season.[7]

The following year he set an indoor best of 1:46.54 minutes as runner-up at the PSD Bank Meeting.[8] With a second place finish at the Kenyan Commonwealth Games trials, he earned his first senior international selection. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games he defeated defending champion Nijel Amos in the final to become the Commonwealth champion. This was Kenya's first gold medal of the tournament that year, as his compatriots had thus far failed to win any of the distance events in which the country is traditionally strong.[4] In July he improved his PB to 1:43.12 taking third at the Diamond League meeting at London.[9]

International competitions

YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
2016 East African Junior Athletics Championships Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 1st 800 m 1:50.17
2018 Commonwealth Games Gold Coast, Australia 1st 800 m 1:45.11

References

  1. Wycliffe Kinyamal. GC2018. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  2. East Africa junior championships, Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania) 29-30/04/2016. Africa Athle. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  3. Wycliffe Kinyamal. IAAF. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  4. Makori, Elias (2018-04-12). Gold at last! Wycliffe Kinyamal ends Kenya's duck in Gold Coast. The Daily Nation. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  5. van den Brink, Cors (2017-07-11). Hassan provides Hengelo highlight with 1500m world lead. IAAF. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  6. Sampaolo, Diego (2017-08-30). Kinyamal clocks 1:43.94 in Rovereto. IAAF. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  7. senior outdoor 2017 800 Metres men. IAAF. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  8. Ramsak, Bob (2018-02-06). Su, Stanek and Manning impress in Düsseldorf . IAAF. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  9. https://london.diamondleague.com/programme-results/results-archive/
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