NAIROBI, March 17 – Kenya's Philip Boit said on Monday he was looking forward to ending his skiing career at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver on a high note.
Boit, the first black African to compete in a Winter Olympics cross-country skiing race, said he was disappointed that a lack of sponsorship meant he could not properly prepare to compete at the Olympics and world championships but he had no regrets about his experiences.
"I may not have a medal to show but I think I am satisfied with what I have done. I have achieved a lot," Boit told AFP.
"I don’t have any regrets that I hanged up my running spikes to turn to skiing. I could say when I quit, I would have set a milestone."
The 37-year-old former 800m runner became the first Kenya to participate in the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan in 1998 after only two months of training in Finland.
Boit, who returned to Kenya last week after competing at the World Nordic Ski Championships in Liberec, Czech Republic plans to return to Finland next month to prepare for the Vancouver games, his fourth and last Olympics appearance.
"I want to make that the best," said Boit, who has been holding "dry" training sessions for endurance in Kenya before resuming his cross country skiing in the Finnish resort town of Vuokatti in April.
