ATHLETICS – BAHRAIN’S elite athlete Birhanu Balew will be running in a highly competitive men’s 5,000 metres tonight in the Oslo Bislett Games in the Norwegian capital.
Balew is one of 18 runners in the entry list for the event, which is part of a packed programme in the prestigious Diamond League meeting.
The 30-year-old heads into the race currently ranked seventh in the world over the distance. A number of other athletes in the men’s 5,000m top 10 are also competing, including world number four Biniam Mehary of Ethiopia, world number eight Ky Robinson of Australia, and world number nine Graham Blanks from the US.
Balew will be making his third appearance of this outdoor athletics season in a Diamond League meet, and it will be his second time contesting the men’s 5,000m. His previous run was last month in Xiamen, China, where he finished seventh and clocked a time of 13 minutes 07.75.
He previously also ran the men’s 3,000m in the Diamond League event in Shaoxing/Keqiao, where he placed 12th in 7:29.60.
Balew’s personal best in the men’s 5,000m is 12:48.67, which he set in 2025 as a new Asian and Bahraini record.
Balew is the lone Bahraini athlete competing today in Oslo.
The Diamond League is the premier one-day meeting series held annually under World Athletics – track and field’s international governing body. After a season of competing and earning points, the world’s top elite athletes qualify for the finals, where they will battle for the prestigious Diamond Trophy of their respective events. The Diamond Trophy is the most prestigious annual award in the sport.
Aside from competing on athletics’ international circuit this year, Balew is also expected to be amongst the top medal hopefuls of Bahrain’s athletics national team that will be going for gold at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi and Nagoya, Japan, scheduled for September 19 to October 4.
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