NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 18 – Kenya will look to do better at the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, after clinching only one medal at the last event staged in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Bethwell Birgen’s bronze in the 3,000m race was the only medal Kenya scoped at the event.
When the 2022 showpiece starts at the Štark Arena on Friday afternoon, Kenya will look to start positively and end the day with a medal.
The only gold medal event involving Kenya on day one is the women’s 3,000m final which will involve Edinah Jebitok and Beatrice Chebet at 10:25pm.
Jebitok who competed at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in the 1500m race had initially been set to double, but with her other race clashing with the final of the 3,000m, she chose to concentrate on the double distance.
The 20-year old has a 3,000m indoor personal best of 8.45.46 set at the Stade couvert Jesse Owens, Val-de-Reuil indoor meet in Lievin, France, on Valentines Day. She is a bronze medalist from the 2018 World Under-18 Championships set in Nairobi.
Meanwhile, 22 year old Chebet is a winner of the World Junior Cross Country race in 2019 as well as the World Under-20 5,000m title in Tampere, Finland in 2018. She is also the 2019 Africa Under-20 Champion in the same race.
Here is the rest of Kenya’s Day One program in Serbia:
2:50pm – 800m heats
Kenya will be represented by the 17-year old Noah Kibet, who won bronze at last year’s World Under-20 Championships in Nairobi. He competes in Heat One.
Another Kenyan, Collins Kipruto, competes in Heat Four. The 27-year old has an indoor best of 1:45.39 clocked at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham last month.
3:25pm – 3,000m Heats
Kenya’s charge will be spearheaded by Jacob Krop and Daniel Simiyu. Krop, 20, will line up in heat one alongside a packed field that also includes Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma, but he is expected to battle out for qualification.
The African Under-20 silver medalist has not run an indoor race this season.
Simiyu meanwhile lines up in Heat Three and has Ethiopian Berihu Aregawi and Kenyan-turned Belgian Isaac Kimeli to worry about.
The 26-year old has already run one indoor race this season, clocking 7:37.86 at the L’Anneau-Halle d’athlétisme de Metz in Metz, France, last month.
