Police boss to fete his star officers

The police commissioner Hussein Ali on Wednesday met with the force’s elite athletes who made Kenya’s team to the Beijing Olympics, including IAAF Golden League jackpot winner Pamela Jelimo, and said he has set aside an undisclosed amount to reward them.

The commissioner congratulated the officers who made up almost half of the Kenyan team to last month’s Olympics.

“Over 40 percent of the athletes who made up the national team are all members of the police force and we hope that these officers will continually carry the national flag in sports,” said Ali.

He was speaking at the police headquarters at Vigilance House when he welcomed the police aces back home.

Jelimo, flanked by her mother Rodah Jeptoo Keter, herself a former athlete, was among the five police officers who ran for Kenya at the Olympics.

The others were Lucy Kabuu, who finished seventh in 10,000 metres race, Moses Masai, fourth in the men’s 10,000m, Vivian Cheruiyot, 14th in 5,000m and 3,000m steeplechase bronze medallist, Richard Mateelong.

Jelimo is the first woman athlete to win an Olympic gold medal for Kenya.

The fourth born in a family of nine cruised to the coveted one million dollar Golden League jackpot two weeks ago after winning all her six races in the series.

What is the jackpot?

The million dollar Golden League Jackpot was introduced in 2005 by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) with any athlete winning his or her speciality race at six meetings getting a share of the one million dollars.

If only one athlete succeeds, then he or she gets the entire sum, an achievement that Jelimo secured by winning all her 800m races of the series in Berlin, Oslo, Rome, Paris, Zurich and Brussels.

He lone challenger going into the final round in Brussels on September 5 was Croatian high jumper Blanca Vlasic who fell at the last hurdle in the Belgian capital.

Jelimo is also African 800m champion and world junior record holder in the two-lap race.

“I’m happy that I was able to realise my dreams this year and I have big plans for my athletics career,” Jelimo said at the police headquarters, adding that she does not plan to shift her training base from Kenya.

“My win has proved that an athlete does not have to train abroad to win the big races. I don’t see why I should move to another nation for training. I love my country and I will continue live and train right here.”