China, here we come! Give way
What you need to know:
- The squad trained in residential camp for about a month at the high altitude St Marks Teachers Training College in Kigari, Embu, that stands at 1,350 metres above sea level before travelling to Nairobi for a one-night stay and then on to China.
- Picking the queue from Kimetto, AK vice chairman, David Okeyo, said: “I am very impressed with the training programme and the way the runners have responded to training. This is the best team that we have ever had.”
- Then there is 29-year-old Emily Chebet whose CV is as long as a professor’s published work list. But important to her course in Guiyang is this telling record: She is a two-time winner of the Championships and heads to China as the reigning women’s champion.
Kenya’s World Cross Country Championships team flew out of Nairobi for Guiyang, China, Tuesday where the 41st edition of the biennial event will be held showing little doubt that their runners will once again be the ones to beat.
And the team management, undoubtedly playing the psychology card to whichever opposition that may have been out there keeping tabs on Kenya, said in no uncertain terms that the squad travelling to Guiyang was the best ever assembled and had had the best preparation possible.
“Training has been wonderful. We have done the speed work and other aspects of training. And the discipline has been high, very high. There is also unity. This team is ready to take on the world. The team is ready to go out and conquer the world,” team manager John Kimetto said on Monday evening during a send-off dinner at Boma Hotel, hosted by Athletics Kenya and their sponsors KCB.
RESIDENTIAL CAMP
The squad trained in residential camp for about a month at the high altitude St Marks Teachers Training College in Kigari, Embu, that stands at 1,350 metres above sea level before travelling to Nairobi for a one-night stay and then on to China.
Picking the queue from Kimetto, AK vice chairman, David Okeyo, said: “I am very impressed with the training programme and the way the runners have responded to training. This is the best team that we have ever had.”
The full team of 24 runners in the senior men and women, and junior men and women does pack a punch. It includes back-to-back national cross country champion Bedan Karoki, who holds a personal best time over 10km of 26:52.36 minutes, and has not hidden his desire of capturing his first major international title.
His teammate and captain Geoffrey Kipsang aka Kamworor would need little introduction. He has run from 3,000m to marathon and, significantly, won the 2011 World Junior Cross Country Champion before graduating to the seniors with a firm eye on the ultimate cross country gong.
Then there is 29-year-old Emily Chebet whose CV is as long as a professor’s published work list. But important to her course in Guiyang is this telling record: She is a two-time winner of the Championships and heads to China as the reigning women’s champion.
Kipsang, who will prefer to let his feet do the running for him, made a simply request to fellow Kenyans during the sendoff dinner: “Pray for us as we represent our country.” The Athletic Kenya president urged them on: “Everyone will want to be a part of us when we collect all the medals in Guiyang.”
Kenya did sweep all the four team gold medals and four individual gold medals at the 2010 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, but lost the senior men team gold and junior men team and individual gold to Ethiopia two years later in the same European town. The departing team vowed to repeat the 2011 feat in Guiyang.
And in another development AK have expressed dismay with their apparel sponsors Nike. “Nike have been a letdown. They send us material late and say they need us to write to them nine months in advance yet we have sent them our calendar. What more do we need to do? We are going to deal with this matter once and for all,” the AK president said.
