Over 2,000 athletes from 200 nations grace biennial event
What you need to know:
- Preparations for the 16th edition of the IAAF World Championships are over and around 2,000 athletes from 200 nations are expected to participate in the event in London.
- The event that starts on Friday and ends on the August 13, will see Kenyan athletes fight to retain the overall title that they won in 2015 in Beijing, China.
- In the absence of Nicholas Bett who pulled out because of an injury, his brother Haron Koech has a lot to do in order to retain the gold that his brother bagged two years ago in 400m men’s hurdles.
IN LONDON
Preparations for the 16th edition of the IAAF World Championships are over and around 2,000 athletes from 200 nations are expected to participate in the event in London.
The event that starts on Friday and ends on the August 13, will see Kenyan athletes fight to retain the overall title that they won in 2015 in Beijing, China.
In the absence of Nicholas Bett who pulled out because of an injury, his brother Haron Koech has a lot to do in order to retain the gold that his brother bagged two years ago in 400m men’s hurdles.
Nation Sport caught up with him at the London Olympics Stadium after a training.
“My training is fine and we are here to do some fine tuning because we are done with the hard training. We arrived the other day and we are just shedding out some kilos that we might have added,” said Koech.
Koech said that he indeed felt under a lot of pressure since he was Kenya’s lone runner in the one-lap hurdles event and was expected to match the country’s exploits of 2015.
“I must say despite good training, I have a lot of work to do so that I can deliver the medal and since I’m alone, it will be a hard task but I must do well.”
The 2015 Africa Games 4x400m gold medallist Raymond Kibet said that the best thing was to qualify for the next round, no mean achievement.
“Having trained well for the championships, the next thing is to run well and make sure we qualify for the next round until we get to the finals. Everybody here is the best that their country can produce so you can expect some serious competition. Kenya’s head coach Julius Kirwa said that thy were in good shape and expects good results.
“Just as we did in 2015, we expect the team to perform well since the training has been good so far,” he said.
Eight-hundred metres world champion David Rudisha and 400m hurdles world champion Bett pulled out after getting an injury.
Rudisha was considered an outright gold medallist and his absence could well be felt when his speciality is held.
