NAIROBI, May 16 -- Champions Helen Obiri and Faith Kipyegon were among elite athletes from Kenya who were eyeing to open their Diamond League quest in Shanghai on Saturday before the event was pushed back to Sept. 19.

Kipyegon, the Olympic 1,500m champion, is hopeful she will be strong enough to return to the Chinese course where she posted her personal best in the four-lap race back in 2016 and restore her season ahead of her Olympic title defense in 2021.

"I was training with Shanghai in my mind. I wanted to launch my Diamond League in China. Instead, the global crisis means we are still waiting for the season to begin," Kipyegon said on Saturday.

Kipyegon has particularly good memories of Shanghai, having smashed her personal best time there on several occasions and set a new meeting record there in 2016 when she clocked 3:56.82.

"Well that is a fast time, but I have since improved it to 3:54.22 last year when I returned from maternity leave to win silver at the World Championships," Kipyegon said. "But Shanghai will be a good course to return to in September."

However, for Obiri, she is working around the clock to regain her fitness and beat her personal best time in the 12-lap race.

Obiri, 30, said she had high hopes of winning the Olympic title in 2020 before the Tokyo Games were postponed.

However, with World Athletics announcing a new rescheduled program for the remainder of the 2020 season, Obiri believes it will be hard for most athletes to hit their top mark prior to the first Diamond League race in Oslo, Norway from June 11.

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