The Herculis meeting held in Monaco on 12. July, the ninth stop on this year’s Diamond League circuit, has a tradition of producing exceptional middle distance performances – and the 2019 edition was no exception.
Highlights included Sifan Hassan setting a new women’s mile WR of 4:12.33; Timothy Cheruiyot’s second sub-3:30 1500m of the year (3:29.97); and the men’s 800m that featured the fastest and deepest field in the event since the historical 800m final at the ’12 London Games. Behind Nijel Amos’ winning time of 1:41.89, Personae veteran Ferguson Rotich Cheruiyot finished strong to pull away from the rest of the field in 2nd place, improving his personal best from 1:42.84 (’14 Herculis) to 1:42.54, moving him to no. 6 on the Kenya all-time 800m list and to no. 15 on the world all-time list. A total of five finishers went sub-1:44:00 in Monaco, with the race producing five of the top-7 results on the ’19 men’s world 800m performance chart.
Other Personae athletes with noteworthy performances in Monaco included Axumawit Embaye in the women’s mile (6th in 4:18.58 personal best and ’19 world no. 6) and Nicholas Bett in the 3000m Steeplechase (9th in 8:11.47 and ’19 world no. 12).
