NAIROBI, Kenya, January 22 – World marathon record holder and G4S global ambassador Haile Gebrselassie is due in Nairobi on January 27 to oversee the inaugural G4S 4Teen training camp that will involve four of Africa’s fast rising sports persons.
World Cross Country junior champion Pauline Korikwiang is among the athletes who stand to benefit from Gebrselassie’s training and take part in career boosting activities like media training and advice on nutrition ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
“Haile’s role is to be a mentor for this project where he will be involved in the training of all these sportsmen and women where these programme (G4S 4Teen) is in place,” said G4S sales and marketing director Betty Koech.
The other athletes who will be taking part in the camp are Nigeria 100m sprinter Obinna Metu, 200m sprinter Fanuel Keniosi from Botswana and table tennis player Zodwa Mapanga from South Africa.
The climax of the three day will be a fun run on January 29 dubbed ‘Come Run With Legends’ which will feature Gebrselassie, his long time arch rival and close friend Paul Tergat and 200 other participants.
“These occasion will give many people a once in a life time opportunity to run with Haile and Paul,” said Koech.
Korikwiang who won the Cinque Mulini cross country race and followed it up with an impressive performance in the Athletics Kenya cross country series season trained with the running legend last year at the Entonto mountain range north of Addis Ababa.
G4S 4Teen was launched three years ago with the aim of nurturing and supporting a new generation of young stars fro around the world in their pursuit of the dream of competing in London 2012.
The select group of 14 stars also come from Colombia, Chinese Taipei, Estonia, Guatemala, India, Kazakhstan, Macau and Thailand.
The athletes cut across various Olympic sports that include BMX, sailing, track and field, weightlifting, table tennis, swimming, cycling, shooting and archery.
Since its formation, five of the athletes on the programme qualified for last year’s Beijing games.
The athletes attend annual global and regional training camps where the members gather together for intensive workshops and give the athletes a chance to catch up with each other and visit a new corner of the world.
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