Prepare our athletes well

• With the World Cross Country Championships and World Championships beckoning in Poland and Russia, respectively, next year Kenya needs to prepare its athletes well

The Athletics Gala Golden Awards went down at the Nairobi Club on Friday night with some of the country’s finest sportsmen and women being rewarded.

Olympic and world 800m champion David Rudisha, who also holds the world record in the two-lap race, dominated the evening to deservingly win the overall Athlete of the Year Award, among other accolades.

The Comeback Award should spur Beijing Olympic Games 800m champion Pamela Jelimo to fully rediscover her former pace. It goes without saying that world junior 1,500m champion Faith Chepng’etich deserved the Outstanding Performance Award.

However, with the World Cross Country Championships and World Championships beckoning in Poland and Russia, respectively, next year Kenya needs to prepare its athletes well.

The performance at the London Olympics Games was not impressive and Athletics Kenya knows exactly what went wrong.

While time is running out, it’s our hope that our athletes will have prepared well to defend the titles won at previous events.