AK blames selection policy for s/chase result

AK secretary general David Okeyo. Photo/DENNIS OKEYO

What you need to know:

  • The strongest steeplechaser this season was beaten at the trials and the AK team was not ready to take the flak again
  • Kemboi was criticised by Kenyan Olympic chiefs for his jumping technique

Kenyan athletics chiefs have blamed the selection policy for their failure to sweep the medals in the Olympic men’s 3,000 steeplechase on Monday.

Kenyans Brimin Kiprop Kipruto and Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong won gold and bronze but Frenchman Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad sneaked in for the silver with Athens champion Ezekiel Kemboi fading to a disappointing seventh.

“We should have waited for two weeks after the (July 5) trials to name a final team to the Games because one of the athletes who did well at the trials was definitely not at his best, but we only realised this later,” David Okeyo, Athletics Kenya secretary general, told Reuters.

“Paul Koech, who was fourth at the trials, ran the season’s best in Europe after the trials, but we had declared that was the final team at the trials. We should not have done that and we shall not do it again,” said Okeyo.

“It was a fluid situation and we did not know how to wiggle through it because the strongest steeplechaser this season was beaten at the trials and we were not ready to take the flak again but let the top three at the trials represent us at the Olympics,” said Okeyo.

Jumping technique

Kemboi was criticised by Kenyan Olympic chiefs for his jumping technique and a team coach said he should have been left out of the team in favour of Koech.

“The problem was who to drop among Kemboi, Kipruto and Mateelong, who finished in that order at the trials, with Koech coming in fourth,” said the coach. Kemboi led a Kenyan sweep of the steeplechase in 2004 and they have won the event at every Olympics since 1984.