Mystery caller threatened one of our girls in camp, claims Leting

Kenya head coach David Leting on Saturday made a stunning revelation in Guiyang on the reason the country’s junior women’s team performed well below expectations at the World Cross Country Championships.

“Someone called one of our girls while in camp and threatened her saying ‘don’t come back to Kenya if you win in Guiyand’,” Leting said at Qingzhen Training Base in Guiyang where the championships were held.

Kenya lost the junior women’s individual title for the first time since 2009 when Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba won, and the team gold for the first time since 2010. Both gold medals were won by Ethiopia.

The Ethiopians swept the board with Leteseneb Gidey, Dera Dida and Etagegn Woldu leading their 1-2-3 finish. Kenya’s best placed finisher was Daisy Jepkemei at fourth.

“I want the authorities to follow up on the threat. Someone called Winfred Nzisa in camp at Kigari at night this month and threatened her life. She was very distraught after that and we had a hard time trying to calm her down,” Leting said.

He said all these distracted her and the rest of the team who were not in the right frame of mind. “You can imagine what something like this can do to a young mind. It affected the team.

“These are young girls and they can get effected seriously by such things,” a visibly annoyed Leting said. Nzis, 16, placed 10th in 20 minutes and 31 seconds, a good 19 seconds behind the winner Gidey on 19:48.

Leting said team managed did not reveal the threats earlier because they did not want to destabilise the squad’s preparations. The Kenya cross team is expected back home Monday evening.