Kenya bags bronze as athletics action starts

IN GOLD COAST

Kenya’s Commonwealth Games medal hunt began in earnest Sunday morning with Samuel Gathimba firing the first salvo with a bronze medal in the 20-kilometre walk.

Gathimba clocked one hour, 19 minutes and 51 seconds to finish behind gold medallist Dane Bird-Smith of Australia (1:19:34) and silver winner, Englishman Tom Bosworth (1:19:38).

An elated Gathimba said his medal will inspire Kenyan race walkers.

“I’m very proud. It was very tough but I did my best,” he said.

“My technique was good, and I love road walking. This medal will be good for Kenyan race walking.”

His next focus now is the Africa Championships in Nigeria in July.

“Other than that, I’m not really sure yet about the future.”

Kenya’s second entry Simon Wachira was lower down at 12th (1:26:33).

The women’s walk, however, didn’t yield any medal with multiple African champion Grace Wanjiru winding up a commendable eighth in 1:42:23 and Lindah Waweru 11th in 1:53:41.

The medals went to Australia’s Jemima Montang (1:32:50), New Zealand’s Alana Barber (1:34:18) and Wales’ Bethan Davies (1:36:08) in that order.

“It was a good walk by Gathimba and the bronze medal has excited the Team Kenya camp here,” Kenya’s head of delegation to these games, Barnabas Korir, said.

“It was important that we got it because it psyches up the camp especially with the 5,000 metres final coming up later tonight.”

Elsewhere, there was some shooting action with Kenya’s Linet Owiti and Marrianne Cherotich up in the qualifying rounds of the women’s 10-metre air pistol at the Belmont Shooting Centre.

With the top eight advancing, the Kenyan pair fell short with Owiti 19th in a field of 25 and Cherotich 21st.

Owiti fired 350 (-3x) and Cherotich 329 (-3x) with Indians Manu Bhaker and Heena Sidhu the top shots, Bhaker firing a Commonwealth Games record 388 (-10x).

In the men’s 10-metre air rifle qualification, Indians, again, took the first two qualifying positions with Deepak Kumar blasting 627.7 and Ravi Kumar 626.8.

Kenya’s Gulraj Sehmi (598.5) and Gurupreet Dhanjal (587.1) found the going tough, occupying the bottom two positions in the field of 18.

There was another bite at the swimming cherry for Kenya, and it wasn’t a bad one as Maria Brunlehner finished sixth in Heat Four of the women’s 100 metres freestyle at the Optus Aquatic Centre.

Maria wound up sixth in 57.75 seconds after a 50-metre split of 27.76, a result that placed her just outside the 16 qualifiers.

She is one of two reserves on standby for tonight’s semi-final (7.59pm, or 12.59pm Kenyan time), along with Jersey’s Gemma Atherley who clocked 58.42 in her heat.

“I’m happy with my performance, I did my best,” Maria said.

“But we need to invest in coaches,” the Brandenburg (Germany) based swimmer added.

“I’m happy I’m in a university that combines education with sports and we have everything, the problem is that when I travel to international competitions, I don’t travel with my coaches.

“The swimming federation must really invest in coaches.”

Further action is to follow Sunday afternoon at 2pm with James Adede up in the men’s 94kg weightlifting final (7am Kenyan time) before boxing and athletics take over in the evening session.

In the ring, Lornah Simbi is up against Canada’s Marie-Jeanne Parent in the women’s 69kg quarter-final where, if she wins, she will be on bronze medal position.

Edwin Owuor takes on New Zealander Ryan Scaife in the men’s 75kg round of 16.

The boxers went through morning work-outs with coach Patrick Maina confident of a good showing tonight, along with tomorrow when Elizabeth Andiego, Nick Abaka and Brian Agina will be in action.

Andiego takes on Nigeria’s Millicent Agboegbulem from 12.02pm (5.02am Kenyan time) while Agina faces Pakistan’s Syed Muhammad Asif from 7.02pm (12.02pm Kenyan time) and Abaka squares out with Zambia’s Mbachi Kaonga.

“The problem is that while Abaka’s fights are all over YouTube, there is little information on his opponent,” coach Maina told Nation Sport.

“But we shall go into the ring and assess the performance in the first round to know what tactics to adopt. But we have plan A and plan B,” he said.

The track and field session also opens today with Dominic Ondigi competing in the hammer throw from 2pm (7am Kenyan time) at the Carrara Stadium.

Mark Otieno will be in action in the 100 metres heats with the big race of the night being the men’s 5,000 metres where Kenya will field Nicholas Kipkorir, Edward Zakayo and David Kiprotich Bett.

The race will be held at 4.40pm local time (9am Kenyan time) with Ugandans, former world junior champion Joshua Cheptegei, Philip Kipyego and Thomas Ayeko, probably the biggest challengers.

“We cannot take the Ugandans for granted. They are from Mt Elgon region and know our athletes very well,” chef de mission Barnabas Korir said.

“But our three athletes are fired up after this morning’s walk gold and they are a young team capable of putting up a fantastic show.”

Kenya’s results, Sunday, April 8:

Athletics:

Men’s 20km walk final: Samuel Gathimba (bronze medal, 1:19:34); Simon Wachira (12th, 1:26:33); Women’s 20km walk final: Grace Wanjiru (8th, 1:42:23), Lindah Waweru (11th, 1:53:41);

Shooting:

Women’s 10m air pistol qualification: Linet Owiti (19th, 350, -3x. Did not qualify), Marrianne Cherotich (21st, 329, -3x. Did not qualify); Men’s 10m air rifle qualification: Gulraj Sehmi (17th, 598.5. Did not qualify), Gurupreet Dhanjal (18th, 587.1. Did not qualify);

Swimming:

Women’s 100m freestyle, Heat Four: Maria Brunlehner (6th, 57.75. Did not qualify, but on reserve’s list).