NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 2 – The Commonwealth Games start proper for Team Kenya on Tuesday morning with the athletics program getting underway at the newly refurbished Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.
The opening day program will involve various preliminary races but most Kenyan eyes will be on new poster boy Ferdinand Omanyala who starts his quest for gold in the preliminary rounds on Tuesday morning.
But, there will be a gold medal event with the final race on the track at 10:35pm with the final of the men’s 10,000m while there will also be preliminary races in the women’s 100m and the 800m as well as the men’s 400m hurdles.
“We are pleased that we are starting the athletics program and we are confident that the team will perform well and add on to more medals for Team Kenya,” said National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) president Paul Tergat.
His sentiments are shared by Athletics Kenya boss (Rtd) Lt. Gen Jackson Tuwei who said; “We have faith in our team and we know we will do well and bring more medals for Kenya.”
Here is Team Kenya’s Athletics program on the opening day:
12:40pm – Men’s 100m Preliminaries
Kenya will be represented by Omanyala, the African record holder as well as Samwel Imeta both of who competed at the African championships.
Omanyala will run his Heat at 1:08pm and will be in lane eight. He is the fastest man in the Heat with a 9.77secs personal best time and a 9.85secs season’s best.
Namibia’s Gilbert Hainuca and Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme are the closest competitors he will have within his wings as they both have a personal best of 10.16secs, even slower than Omanyala’s losing time at the semi-finals of the World Athletics Championships.
Imeta, with a Personal best time of 10.25secs will compete in Heat Nine at 1:36pm and is the third fastest in his round with Cejhae Greene of Antigua running 10.02secs this season while Rohan browning of Australia has run 10.08secs.
1:50pm – Women’s 800m Preliminaries
Kenya will be represented by World Championships bronze medalist Mary Moraa and Jarinter Mawia. Moraa starts off in Heat One where she will also be up against Uganda’s 2019 World Champion halima Nakaayi and South Africa’s rising star Prudence Sekgodiso.
Mawia, the African champion, competes in Heat Three where competition is expected from English World Championship silver medalist Keely Hodgkinson.
2:15pm – Women’s 100m Preliminaries
National champion and record holder Maximila Imali and Millicent Ndoro will compete in the women’s 100m
Imali will compete in heat two alongside Jamaican sprint Queen Elaine Thompson Herah while Ndoro will be in Heat Three.
9:10pm – Men’s 400m Hurdles
Kenya will also have two representatives in the one-lap hurdle race with Wiseman Were and William Mbevi. Were competes in Heat One and Mbevi in Heat two.
10:35pm – Men’s 10,000m final
Kenya will have an opportunity of adding it’s medal count with the first and only final of the day, the 10,000m. Kenya’s line up has Daniel Simiu fresh from the World Championships, 5,000m bronze medalist from Gold Coast 2018 Edward Zakayo and Kibiwott Kandie.
Defending champion Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda will not be present to defend his crown, and will leave the duties to compatriot Jacob Kiplimo, bronze medalist from the Olympic Games in Tokyo last year.
With no Ethiopian representation, this is expected to be a duel between the Kenyans and the Ugandan.
