Photo Courtesy of the Standard
It was a memorable welcome for the Kenya women half marathon team that returned from Copenhagen, Denmark where it produced a stunning performance to dominate the 2014 IAAF world half marathon championships
Kenya out-ran their bitter rivals Ethiopia to reclaim team and also individual honors, with Gladys Cherono won gold with a brilliant performance in her maiden race.
The 28 year old gold medalist now has her eyes focused on the commonwealth games set for July 23 to august 3 in Glasgow where she intends to compete in the 10,000m race.
“I am happy for this outing and glad that I did it to my expectation. I now plan to rest and go into training ahead of the Commonwealth Games. I hope to make it to the national team,” said Cherono.
Geoffrey Kamworor who is the men’s gold medalist having beaten five-time champion Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea is also looking forward to the commonwealth games with big plans.
Kamworor now hopes to make it to the team where he wants to compete in 5,000m event determined to break the current world record.
Lucy Kabuu who is the Ras Al Kaimah half marathon 2013 champion is also hoping to improve on her performance after not registering poor results which she says is due to fatigue, having just four weeks to recover after taking part in Tokyo marathon
Warf to Warf half marathon 2009 champion Simon Cheprot and Kennedy Kipkemboi also said they will be aiming for both the Africa Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games.
Congratulating the team,AK president Isaiah Kiplagat said he was pleased with its performance and also congratulated team coach Edith Masai for her input.
He said with Kenya having a deficit of local women coaches such as Masai who is a former track winner will serve as one of the dependable national team coaches for long.
“We are happy with the performance you showed. For Masai, we are more pleased of a good job and I personally want to assure you that you will be AK national coach for a long time,” he said.
AUTHOR :VINCENT BARAZA.