Omulo Okoth in Mombasa
27 March 2007
Nairobi — The Kenyan team to the 35th World Cross Country Championships will be awarded generously for retaining the overall team title at the event held in Mombasa on Saturday, Peter Angwenyi, Athletics Kenya head of publicity has said.
"We have received a pledge of Sh500,000 from East African Breweries Limited and we expect more to come," said Angwenyi. He said a date would be set to call all the 27 runners who did the country proud to Nairobi to thank them for their gallant effort.
Kenya retained the overall team title on Saturday, winning two individual titles in the men's and women's category and a silver and bronze in the senior men's race. Ethiopia, who are their main rivals, returned home without a single individual gold, only getting consolation from their senior women's team, which won gold.
Angwenyi said this was one of the best performances by the Kenyan team in the history of the World Cross Country Championships.
Briefing the media during the course of the IAAF Council Meeting, general secretary Pierre Weiss said the crowd was one of the biggest ever, only rivalling Brussels (2004) and St Galmier (2005).
Weiss reported that some concerns were raised during the Council meeting on the intense heat that affected many youth in the junior races.
"But we are all happy to have come to Mombasa because it gave us some important experiences. There was a serious debate on the heat, which we all expected, although we did not expect it to be so high as was the case," he said.
Meanwhile, Angwenyi said focus turns on the AK weekend meetings ahead of the August's World Championships in Osaka, Japan.
Kisii will host the second weekend meeting this weekend and Angwenyi has appealed to athletes to turn out in large numbers.
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