A newcomer to the Personae-managed athlete group in 2018, Cornelius Tuwei went into the outdoor track season holding a 800m personal best of 1:45.7 from 2017, ranking him 74th on the ’17 season’s world chart. Fast-forward one year, and Tuwei is now among the world’s top 800m runners, a status achieved after an intense week of competition in mid-July. Tuwei’s big week started at Meeting Liege on 18. July, where he placed 2nd in the 800m with a time of 1:45.71, narrowly defeated by Mostafa Smaili (1:45.65). Tuwei then made his breakthrough on the world stage at the Herculis Diamond League 800m in Monaco on 20. July, finishing 4th in 1:43.82, moving him to the no. 10 on the ’18 world 800m performance chart. It was a substantial improvement of his previous 800m personal best of 1:44.91, set in February at the Kenyan Trials for the Commonwealth Games. The Monaco race was won by Nijel Amos in a ’18 world-leading time of 1:42.14, which was subsequently surpassed by Emmanuel Korir (1:42.05) at the Diamond League meeting in London on 22. July. Tuwei completed his busy week at the Night of Athletics in Heusden on 21. July, placing 4th in the 1500m with a new personal best of 3:37.25.
Other performances of note by Personae-managed athletes at the meetings in Liege, Monaco, Heusden, and London were as follows: Bob Bertemes -1st in Heusden Spot Put (20.48m); Noelie Yarigo – 2nd in Heusden 800m (2:00.06); Abdelmalik Lahoulou – 2nd in Heusden 400mH (49.01) and 2nd in Liege 400mH (49.66); Charline Mathias – 3rd in Heusden 800m (2:00.35 Personal Best/Luxembourg national record); Dawit Wolde – 3rd in Heusden 5000m (13:10.65); Japhet Korir – 4th in Heusden 5000m (13:11.86); Anne Zagre – 4th in Liege 100mH (13.21); Albert Rop – 5th in Heusden 5000m (13:13.96); Youssouf Hiss Bachir – 5th in London DL 1500m (3:35.74 Personal Best); Davis Kiplangat – 6th in Heusden 5000m (13:15.91); Pieter-Jan Hannes – 6th in Heusden 1500m (3:38.28); Tarik Moukrime – 7th in Heusden 1500m (3:38.59); Eva Cherono – 7th in London DL 3000m (8:48.14); and Winfried Yavi – 9th in Monaco DL 3000m SC (9:10.74 Personal Best/’18 world no. 10). A final highlight to point out was Louise Carton‘s 17th place time of 15:33.25 at the Heusden 5000m, which met the qualification standard for the upcoming European Championships in Berlin.