NAIROBI, Kenya, May 7 – Kenyan sprinter Mark Otieno is keeping hope alive despite failure to qualify for the Paris Olympics as part of the men’s 4x100m relay team at the past weekend’s World Relays in Bahamas.
Otieno, who was competing in his first international assignment, expressed his pride and joy at donning the national team singlet after almost three years in the cold.
“We are sprinters, but this journey sure feels like a marathon. Didn’t get the results we had hoped for, but I was just so happy and humbled to be at the world relay championships,” the sprinter said.
The quartet of Otieno, Commonwealth Games 100m champion Ferdinand Omanyala, Mike Mokamba and Meshack Babu clocked 39.15 to finish fourth in the men’s 4x100m relay.
Previously, on Saturday, the team had finished a disappointing eighth after clocking 39.98 in heat 4 of the qualifying round.
With the summer games less than 80 days away, Otieno is strategising for a pathway to Paris.
“We are sprinters, but this journey sure feels like a marathon. Didn’t get the results we had hoped for, but I was just so happy and humbled to be at the world relay championships,” he said.
Should he punch his ticket to the quadrennial games, Otieno will be keen to right the wrongs of 2021 when he was chucked out of the startlist at the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for a prohibited substance.
Otieno was eventually banned for two years during which he has been training to keep in shape.
