NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 22 – An exciting five days of top class athletics competition at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships comes to an end on Sunday with kenya, already top of the medal standings, looking to make a sizzling end.
There will be five finals in which Team Kenya athletes will be heavily involved.
First off will be the 800m final with Noah Kibet and Emmanuel Wanyonyi vowing to blaze the field apart and clinch victory with a double, just like in Tampere, Finland, three years ago.
At 3:50pm, the duo of Winny Jemutai and Purity Chepkirui will be taking on the 1500m final and with Vincent Keter having won the men’s race on Saturday, they will also look to paste from the same script and give Kenya a gold as well.
Chepkirui won her heat in 4:22.10 ahead of Ethiopia’s Hiwott Mehari who has the fastest time this season among the finalists. The Ethiopian, alongside compatriot Diribe Welteji will be Kenya’s biggest rivals in the race.
At 4:05pm, Simon Koech and Amos Serem will look to defend Kenya’s royalty in the men’s steeplechase and the two have vowed to ensure victory comes home having easily won their heats.
They admit that they were pained watching the Olympic Gold medal snatched away from kenya’s watch and will be keen to ensure that respect is retained.
“Steeplechase is a Kenyan race and we will not watch it go anywhere else. We know that we slipped at the Olympics as a country, but we are the generation that will ensure Kenya is not beaten again,” a confident Serem said, going into the finals.
At 5:10pm, Maureen Cherotich and Zenah Cheptoo will be on the line to start the women’s 5,000m hoping to earn kenya another gold after the men delivered.
However, they will come under immense pressure from Ethiopian Mizan Alem who is the only one to run under 15 minutes this season, having clocked a best of 14:46.20.
Melknat Wudu with a season’s best time of 15:20.41 is also another to watch out for as well as Uganda’s Priscah Chesang who has run 15:05.39 this season.
Cherotich has a season’s best time of 15:44.00 while Zena has timed a best of 15:46.20 this year.
The men’s 4x400m relays team will put a marker to the end of the competition with the final at 6:10pm. Can they make it a golden finish for Team Kenya?
