Kenya conquers the world as Kiprop rounds off seven-star display

Kenya's Timothy Cheruiyot and Kenya's Elijah Motonei Manangoi congratulate Kenya's Asbel Kiprop after he won the final of the men's 1500 metres athletics event at the 2015 IAAF World Championships at the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium in Beijing on August 30, 2015. I am not sure we are still keen on hosting the 2017 IAAF World Youth Championships here in Nairobi. PHOTO | OLIVIER MORIN |

What you need to know:

  • he icing on the cake was put up by Asbel Kiprop who wrapped up the historic performance when he stormed to his third consecutive victory in men’s 1,500m race, a performance that brought the packed 80,000-seater Bird’s Nest Stadium to its feet.
  • Kiprop, who was at the tail of the pack at the bell and with 200m to go, slowly ploughed his way up in a super-speed, hitting the front with less than 20m to go before winning in 3 minutes 34.40 seconds.
  • Kiprop’s gold in 1500m made all the difference and the lanky runner achieved three things yesterday – overcame flu, won an explosive final and pocketed his third gold in a row.

BEIJING

Oh! Let it be shouted from all the rooftops! We have finally secured our first overall title at the World Athletics Championships.

Many times our athletes have laboured for this great honour but we have always fallen short of conquering the world. It is our turn to swank and we shall do it even if it annoys the rest of the world.

It was a marvelling seven-star performance for Kenya in Beijing. The icing on the cake was put up by Asbel Kiprop who wrapped up the historic performance when he stormed to his third consecutive victory in men’s 1,500m race, a performance that brought the packed 80,000-seater Bird’s Nest Stadium to its feet.

Kiprop, who was at the tail of the pack at the bell and with 200m to go, slowly ploughed his way up in a super-speed, hitting the front with less than 20m to go before winning in 3 minutes 34.40 seconds.

Kiprop’s gold in 1500m made all the difference and the lanky runner achieved three things yesterday – overcame flu, won an explosive final and pocketed his third gold in a row.

“I had prepared by colleagues to go for the race since I knew I was not in my best after a bout of flu. But with 300 metres to go I felt strong and decided to attack the race”, Kiprop said. He won in 3:34.40. An emerging middle distance star, Elijah Manangoi took silver after a last minute effort saw him flow from fifth in the queue to beat Morocco’s Abdalaat Iguider to the line.

Manangoi clocked 3:34.63 against Iguider’s 3:34.67. The achievement made the 22-year-old promise to go for world record in the event soon. He was 12th at last year’s Commonwealth games in the distance and he said that winning the silver at world championship level has motivated him to set the bar high for himself.

He ran the race confidently and attributes this to peace of mind after listening to a song by Rihanna moments before the race. “I love listening to her music. So I was stress-free,” he said.

Kiprop said now that he has successfully won the title three times after Daegu, 2011 and Moscow 2013, he would now be going for the world record.

“I want to leave a legacy by breaking the record (3:26.00 by Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj since 1998) and join the league of greats like (Noureddine) Morceli (Algeria) and El Guerrouj,” said Kiprop, who came close to breaking the record when he ran 3:26.69 in Monaco, in July.

Kiprop and Manangoi’s feat, which preceded Helah Kiprop’s silver medal from women’s Marathon race in the morning, saw Kenya top the medal standing with 16 medals; seven gold, six silver and three bronze.They beat heavyweights Jamaica to second with 7-2-3 and United States of America to third with 5-6-6.

It’s Vivian Cheruiyot who gave Kenya its first gold medal when she recaptured the 10,000m title she won at the 2011 Daegu World championships.

Then Olympic champion and World record holder David Rudisha returned to winning ways with gold after two previous seasons of injuries.

Jonathon Bett wrote his name in history books as the first Kenyan to win sprints event at the World Championships with the 400m hurdles gold medal.

Ezekiel Kemboi then claimed his fourth World 3,000m steeplechase title as  African javelin champion Julius Yego won the country’s fiurst ever gold i n a field event. It was pure bliss.

Hyvin Kiyeng was on top of her game to ensure that the women’s 3,000m steeplechase title won by Milcah Chemo for the first time in 2013 Moscow remained in Kenya. All’s well that ends well.