Kenya coach predicts huge medals harvest at Kasarani
What you need to know:
- Team Kenya’s head coach, Kariuki Gikonyo, has predicted a haul of at least seven gold medals at the World Under-18 Championships starting Wednesday at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.
- At the same time, Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario and the world youth competition’s Local Organising Committee (LOC) members made their last tour at the new-look Kasarani Stadium before the arena is handed over to IAAF.
- On Sunday, Gikonyo, who also appealed to Kenyans to turn out in numbers and cheer their team to victory, said he is confident of a good showing from Kenyans as the team’s technical bench and athletes have worked hard in the last three weeks.
Team Kenya’s head coach, Kariuki Gikonyo, has predicted a haul of at least seven gold medals at the World Under-18 Championships starting Wednesday at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.
At the same time, Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario and the world youth competition’s Local Organising Committee (LOC) members made their last tour at the new-look Kasarani Stadium before the arena is handed over to IAAF.
On Sunday, Gikonyo, who also appealed to Kenyans to turn out in numbers and cheer their team to victory, said he is confident of a good showing from Kenyans as the team’s technical bench and athletes have worked hard in the last three weeks.
Gikonyo believes Kenya can repeat her good performance that saw her athletes win the overall title in editions of the World Under-20 Championships in 2000 (Santiago, Chile), 2006 (Beijing) and 2010 (Moncton, Canada).
Kenya won seven gold medals in Santiago, six in Beijing where Olympic and World 800m champion David Rudisha was revealed to the world and seven from Canada where 2013 World 5,000m silver medallist Mercy Cherono was among the winners. Gikonyo coached Kenya to the games.
“We are ready for the championships. I believe I still have the midas touch that will propel these youngsters to their best performance on this final edition of the world youth event.
“The energy might not be there in the final lap but that cheering will give athletes the final victory push,” said Gikonyo.
And Team Kenya checked into Athletes Village at Kenyatta University on Sunday.
Kenya’s best ever performance in the championship was during the 2009 edition in Brixen, Italy where they claimed 14 medals; six gold, seven silver and one bronze for the overall title.
Kenya finished second at the last championships held in 2015 in Cali, Colombia where they collected 13 medals, five gold, four silver and four bronze.
Even though Gikonyo expects most medals from middle and long distance races, he cautioned his charges against underrating their opponents.”
“We must remember that teams like Ethiopia started training much earlier than us,” warned Gikonyo.
“We must be careful in events where we start with heats to the finals especially sprints and middle distance events.” A total of 21 teams have arrived in Nairobi for the championship.
