Paralympics team in high spirits

• Team Kenya checked into the Olympic Village, also in Stratford, London, shortly after midday on Wednesday, ready for a feel of the competition venues ahead of the Paralympic Games which start with the opening ceremony on Wednesday and run until September 9.
• The Paralympics skipper, Henry Kirwa, who will double in the T12 category’s 1,500 metres and 5,000m, was upbeat after holding his final team meeting on campus on Tuesday night.
• Legendary distance runner Henry Wanyoike is among the more experienced members of the squad and will be making his marathon debut here, having competed in the 5,000m and 10,000m on the track in the past.

What our Olympians failed to deliver, we shall deliver! That’s the rallying call Kenya’s Paralympics team brought into London on Wednesday, arriving from a week’s training stint in Bristol.

The 29-strong team of 14 athletes, five guide runners and 10 officials/coaches wound up their training on a rainy Tuesday night at the University of Western England (UWE) campus where they have been a huge hit over the past seven days.

Kenya’s perennially unsung heroes and heroines left in special buses to the capital after a sumptuous English breakfast, well aware of the huge task that awaits them at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford.

Team Kenya checked into the Olympic Village, also in Stratford, London, shortly after midday on Wednesday, ready for a feel of the competition venues ahead of the Paralympic Games which start with the opening ceremony on Wednesday and run until September 9.

“At the Beijing Paralympics, we won five gold medals and our target is to either equal or surpass that record,” General Team Manager, Joseph Ochieng, told the Nation after checking into the Olympic Village.

“Traditionally, there has been a lot of pressure on Paralympians to deliver after the Olympians fall short. The situation is the same again this time and we will not disappoint.”

Kenya’s Olympic team here won two gold, four silver and five bronze medals at the Games that concluded on August 12, a decline from their six gold, four silver and four bronze in Beijing four years ago.

The Paralympics skipper, Henry Kirwa, who will double in the T12 category’s 1,500 metres and 5,000m, was upbeat after holding his final team meeting on campus on Tuesday night:

“Tuko gangari! Sasa yaliyobaki tunawachia mungu (We are upbeat; we leave the rest to God).”

Wanyoike for marathon debut

The track and field team has been training at the inspirationally-named Kipchoge Keino Stadium, after Kenya’s Olympic legend who was given the ceremonial keys to the City of Bristol on the eve of the Olympics.

Legendary distance runner Henry Wanyoike is among the more experienced members of the squad and will be making his marathon debut here, having competed in the 5,000m and 10,000m on the track in the past.

The visually impaired star – a special ambassador of Standard Chartered Bank’s “Seeing is Believing” sight restoration charity – was quite relaxed on the final day of training, spending a light evening with his guide, Joseph Kibunja and Team Kenya members.

“I’m happy with the training conditions in Bristol and I feel good,” said Wanyoike, who achieved his Paralympics qualifying time at the Hanover Marathon and is one of Kenya’s big medal prospects here.