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Kenya athletics team ready to rumble
Janet Kisia, national Cross Country junior (6km) champion leads team mates during training at in Kigari, Embu on March 12, 2011.The team travelled to Punta Umbria Spain on Thursday for the World Cross Country Championships set for March 20, 2011. Photo/MOHAMMED AMIN
The Kenya team landed here on Thursday evening beaming with confidence as they seek to defend their eight gold medals in the World Cross Country Championships this Sunday.
The 39th edition of the IAAF event has attracted over 500 runners from 55 countries. Kenya must do everything to strengthen their grip on the championship it has dominated since 1985.
Kenya’s challenge will again come from Ethiopia, Spain, Portugal, USA, Australia, Bahrain, Qatar, Eritrea, Uganda, Great Britain, Morocco and Japan.
There was little the Kenya team could have done on Thursday after checking in at their hotels after enduring an 18-hour trip from Nairobi.
Head of delegation, Joseph Kinyua, who together with press Liaison Officer Peter Angwenyi had travelled a day before, had made sure that the accommodation of the athletes was in perfect condition.
Silver medallist
Head coach David Leting reiterated that team work was crucial if Kenya was to successfully defend and improve on their previous record.
Kenya made history in 2010 when it became the first country to win all the eight gold medals, four individual and four team titles in Poland.
“We are all tired and need a rest after the long flight from Nairobi. I will assess the team tomorrow and see where to work on. We have enough time to acclamatise and that is important to the athletes,” said Leting.
In the men’s 12km race, Geoffrey Mutai is the favourite. There’s also Vivian Cheruiyot, Sylvia Kibet and Priscah Jepleting.
Mutai is the favourite, owing to his strong build-up to the competition, in which he is yet to lose after competing in four races in Kenya.
With defending champion Joseph Ebuya having failed to pass the volatile test of Kenyan trials, Mutai will be the main man as Hosea Macharinyang, Mathew Kisorio and Vincent Chepkok provide the cover up.
But it is the return of Cheruiyot, the world 5,000m champion in the senior women’s 8km race, together with Kibet, the silver medallist in Berlin and Priscah Jepleting that has caught the imagination of the championship and fans.
Cheruiyot and Kibet were winners in cross country as junior and last featured for Kenya in 2007 in Mombasa, but Jepleting last competed in cross country in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2008.
