Kenyan athletes step up training at Kigari camp
Kenya women’s cross country and relay team trains on February 28, 2017 in Embu County. The athletes are preparing for the 2017 World Cross country Championships set for Kampala on March 26. PHOTO | CHARLES WANYORO |
What you need to know:
- Local runners begin preparations for 2017 World Cross country Championships
- It’s a full house as coach Ndiwa takes cross country, relay teams through their paces
Kenya's Cross Country and relay team have began official training at Kigari high attitude grounds in Embu County in readiness for the World competition set for Kampala, Uganda, on March 26.
Team Kenya head coach, Juma Ndiwa, on Tuesay said the last of the 30 athletes arrived in camp on Sunday, enabling the team to undertake full training as he seeks to gauge their physical fitness and to identify areas of weaknesses that need to be worked on.
The team comprising of 12 junior athletes, 12 senior runners and six relay athletes held a mid-morning training session on a dirt road, mainly focusing on speed work and teamwork.
DAILY TRAINING SESSIONS
Ndiwa said they would begin daily sessions with morning runs and hold main training sessions from noon till 4pm to help athletes get used to weather conditions similar to those in Kampala.
Ndiwa, himself a former 800 metres runner, heaped praises on the current squad, terming it the “best ever.” Ndiwa expressed optimism that the athletes would register excellent performance in Kampala.
The coach said the team, which is residing at Kigari Teachers Training College, has been boosted by the presence of experienced runners such as Geoffrey Kamworor, Asbel Kiprop and Alice Aprot. He said coaches would integrate the cross country and relay teams for training purposes.
“I am not worried. By the look of things, this is the best team we have ever had. I have watched them and I am impressed. Our main mission in Kampala is to win,” said Ndiwa.
World cross country champion Kamworor said he was eager to defend his title on African soil, promising that the current team would perform better than other outings.
“I am very optimistic of defending the title this year. We have a strong team and our sole goal is to ensure that the team wins the title. The training is okay and has the capacity to even perform better that we did in 2015,” he said. Kamworor said he had improved a lot since recovering from injury and was hopeful of taking part in this year’s world championships in London in August.
