Teen Kaimuri wins senior race

Teenager Fridah Kaimuri on Saturday caused a sensation when she triumphed in the senior women’s eight-kilometre race at Athletics Kenya’s Eastern Branch cross country championships at the Meru College of Technology.

The 16-year-old Kenya Methodist University student had arrived late at the venue and found her speciality, the junior women’s 6km race almost over.

She did not return home dejected but, instead, entered the 8km senior women’s race which she amazingly won in a time of 27 minutes and 53 seconds. Kaimuri beat Pauline Waruguru (28:27) and Freizer Nyambura (28:32) to second and third place respectively.

However, she was selected in the juniors’ team because of her age. She first won the Machakos leg of the AK weekend meeting and was fifth in Meru in December.

National trials

The Meru races, which were sponsored by National Bank of Kenya, was used to select a team of 24 athletes who will represent Eastern branch at the national trials at the Ngong Racecourse on Saturday.

The national trials will be used to select the Kenya team to the World Cross Country Championships in Amman, Jordan on March 28. The men 12km race was won by Elijah Mwaniki who was timed at 36:29.

Daniel Kinyua clocked 24:14 to win the junior men’s eight-kilometre race while Kennedy Mureithi (25:04) was second. Racheal Karabu took advantage of Kaimuri’s absence to win the junior race in 21:23 ahead of Leah Mbogo’s 22:05.