Kenya gives mighty USA and Jamaica a run for their money

NASSAU, The Bahamas

Kenya finished third overall in the inaugural IAAF World Relays Championships in the Bahamas, behind USA and fast-finishing Jamaica.

The championship ended at Nassau’s Thomas A. Robinson Stadium on Sunday night.

But fans should not expect a parade of medals when the teams return home, as these championships don’t award medals but rather, points for the top teams.

Organisers are still grappling with the huge expenses involved in planning and hosting the fresh championships, but the Bahamas government has taken the tab for the first two championships this year and the next.

The United States topped the standings, as analysts had expected, with 60 points.

The 2011 World 100 metres champion Yohan Blake anchored Jamaica’s 4x100m team to victory in the final race of the night, leap-frogging over Kenya who triumphed in the men’s 4x1,500m in world record time.

Kenya’s women’s 4x800m team, spearheaded by World champion Eunice Sum, finished second to the USA.

Jamaica amassed 41 points behind USA’s 60 with Kenya third with 35 points.

Kenya’s performance was remarkable, considering that both the United States and Jamaica were virtually on “home ground” with the US city of Miami a mere 35 minutes hop by air. Jamaica’s capital, Kingston is also just one-and-a-half hours away.

SHATTERING RECORDS

Team Kenya will leave Nassau with its head high after shattering world records in the men’s and women’s 1,500m. The team also convincingly won the men’s 4x800m even without the country’s top three runners — Olympic champion and world record holder David Rudisha, Olympic bronze medallist Timothy Kitum and Anthony Chemut, also an Olympian.

After shattering the women’s world record in the 4x1,500m on Saturday, World champion Asbel Kiprop led a stellar men’s cast, past the magical record figure to, like the women, bag $100,000 (Sh8.6 million). Half of that (Sh4.3 million) was the winners’ purse, with a similar amount in world record bonus.

“It’s been a good season so far and now I’m gonna go out and chase my personal best in the 1,500m,” said Kiprop who will run the celebrated “Bowerman Mile” at the weekend’s Prefontaine Classic IAAF Diamond League meeting in Eugene, USA.

The men’s team clocked 14 minutes and 22.22 seconds, beating the previous record of 14:36.23 set at the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels on September 4, 2009, by the quartet of William Biwott, Gideon Gathimba, Geoffrey Rono and Augustine Choge.

LESSONS LEARNT

Many lessons were learnt, and Kenya came out of these championships with the added advantage of more athletes getting exposure to world class competitions.

The women’s 4x800m relay team, for example, lacked the international experience required to upstage fighting USA.

“We need more exposure and I’m calling upon the young girls to work harder in the 800 metres so that we stop the Americans and other challengers,” said 2007 World 800 metres champion Janeth Jepkosgei, who has been on the global scene since she broke through as a junior in 1999.

“My daughters, these young girls, keep me going and whenever I’m about to quit, they pull me along,” said Jepkosgei.

Most in the Kenyan team travel across to Eugene in the US for the Oregon leg of the IAAF Diamond League coming up this weekend.