Athletes step up training for World Championships
Julius Yego trains at Kasarani Stadium on August 13, 2015 in preparation for the World Championships in Athletics. Athletics Kenya has added two more runners to the team of 48 athletes. PHOTO | DAVID MACHARIA |
What you need to know:
- Squad of 50 readies for Beijing
- Shikanda finished third during the national trials held at Kasarani Stadium from July 30 to August 1.
Two more athletes have been added to Team Kenya which has stepped up camping at Safaricom Stadium, Kasarani for this year’s World Championships in Athletics.
Athletics Kenya on Thursday said Jacinter Shikanda and Margaret Wambui had been included in the 48-man team and will compete in 400m and 800m races respectively.
The team of 50 athletes will represent Kenya at the Championships that will run from August 22 to 30 in Beijing.
Shikanda finished third during the national trials held at Kasarani Stadium from July 30 to August 1.
AK said the athletes have been included in the team following invitation by the IAAF based on a new qualification system introduced for this year’s competition. This year, IAAF has specified the number of athletes to compete in each event of the Championships.
“In those events where the number of athletes qualified for the championship by meeting the set standard (or by finishing top in a given competition or via wild card) plus the unqualified athletes (only representative of a given country) is not sufficient to reach the target, the IAAF shall extend an invitation to the next best ranked athletes in the qualification period until the target number is reached”, AK said in a statement.
“Following communication from IAAF and after consultations with the technical team, Athletics Kenya has included the two athletes in Team Kenya,” the statement added.
FROOME BACKS FARAH
Internationally, Tour de France winner Chris Froome has backed British track great Mo Farah’s decision to release blood test data in an attempt to silence sceptics.
Farah, who won Olympic gold medals in 2012 for the 5,000m and 10,000m - is one of eight athletes who have agreed to release their own readings. His coach Alberto Salazar has faced doping allegations but both he and Farah deny any wrongdoing. And fellow Briton Froome, who faced constant allegations of doping during his second Tour win last month, believes it’s the right thing to do.
“I think for similar reasons during the Tour de France we released some of my power data,” he told BBC Radio Four on Thursday.
“It’s a step towards being more transparent, to show we don’t have anything to hide.” However, Froome said that while the decision might be right for some, it would be wrong to suspect others purely for their reluctance to release their own numbers given the personal nature of the information.
“There’s definitely that downside,” he said. “I’ve released all my personal medical information and I’m doing it to show people there’s nothing to hide, but I wouldn’t want athletes who are not doing that to have a shadow cast on them.”
