Kenya: Why Olympic Champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi Missed Out On Stockholm Diamond League

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 10, 2026 - As he steps onto the tartan track at the Bislett Stadium in Oslo on Wednesday night, Emmanuel Wanyonyi will be celebrating an incredible milestone in his life.

The 21-year-old became a father over the weekend, and couldn't be any happier heading into the sixth leg of the Diamond League.

Brimming from ear to ear, Wanyonyi explained he had to give the Stockholm Diamond League a wide berth, so as to witness this glorious moment.

"I couldn't compete at Stockholm because I had to go back home straight from Rabat (Diamond League). My wife gave birth to our firstborn child and I am so happy," the Olympic and world champion said while trying to contain his excitement.

It is the sort of extra push that the youngster needs as he pursues his first win of this year's Diamond League circuit -- as well as his second of the year.

His other win was at the Kip Keino Classic World Continental Tour in April, in which he timed 3:34.11 to win the men's 1500m.

At his last race in Rabat, Wanyonyi clocked 1:43.56 to finish second in what was the fourth leg of the prestigious competition.

He will be up against a fairly strong line-up of rivals in the men's 800m that includes Olympics silver medalist Marco Arop of Canada, Frenchman Gabriel Tual -- who won the same race at last week's Rome Diamond League -- and Spain's Mohammed Attaoui, among others.

Read the original article on Capital FM.

AllAfrica publishes around 600 reports a day from more than 90 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.

AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 600 news and information items daily from over 90 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington DC.

Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox

By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy.

To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you.

There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.