Mercy Cherono celebrates winning 5000m Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow, Scotland.
NAIROBI, June 3- Top performers at National Olympics Committee- Kenya sponsored events in 2014, including the Glasgow Commonwealth Games- squad that won 10 gold medals will be feted Friday in a gala ceremony in Nairobi.
According to a statement from the local Olympics body, teams who competed at Africa Youth Games in Botswana and Youth Olympics Games in China will also be honoured during the fete.
“Energized by the promising performance of the local athletes at the Commonwealth games, the National Olympic Committee of Kenya is looking to maintain the momentum when it sends the team to the 2016 Rio Olympics,” the statement signed by Nock secretary, F K Paul said.
“NOCK is committed to sharing the success of our athletes in order to create sporting heroes and role models that will inspire the youth of this nation. We will be happy if we all join in celebration of their wonderful achievements,” Dr Kipchoge Keino, the Nock chairman, added.
Kenya Pipeline Company donated Ksh.1 million for the gala awards, a first of its kind organised by the Olympics body where Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Arts and Culture, Dr. Hassan Wario is scheduled to be the chief guest.
The success of Kenyan athletes across the disciplines in Glasgow showed the strength and depth of the talent that continues to progress across the national teams, buzz that NOCK is looking to sustain and provoke when it rewards athletes this Friday,” Paul stated.
All Kenyan gold medals during the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games were won by the country’s track, field and marathon exponents where Julius Yego, the captain made history as the first from his nation to strike the top medal at the quadrennial event in field sport when he won the men’s Javelin title.
Flomena Cheyech (women marathon), Caleb Ndiku (men 5000m), Faith Chepng’etich (women 1500m), Joyce Chepkirui (women 10,000m), Purity Cherotich (women 3000m steeplechase), Eunice Sum (women 800m), Jonathan Ndiku (men 3000m steeplechase), James Magut (men 1500m) and Mercy Cherono (women 5000m) were other gold medallists from Scotland.
The performance fell just short of matching the record 11 gold won at the preceding edition in Delhi, India where swimmer Jason Dunford broke athletics monopoly when he won the 50m butterfly title.
Some gold winners in the list among them Yego, Cherono and Chepng’etich are out of the country for the Rome and Laussane Diamond League meetings on Thursday and weekend.
