Chris Tsuma
28 August 2007
Nairobi — Eunice Jepkorir clocked in at nine minutes, 20.09 seconds to win Kenya's second world championship medal - a bronze - in the 3,000 metres steeplechase at the World Athletics Championships here yesterday but said more needed to be done to improve the standards.
"To say the truth, the women's standards are still a bit low compared to the men's but we know it's only the second time the event is featuring in the world championships and so it's only still developing but yes, there is need for more efforts to make it better," she said.
There are not many competitors in this event," she said at the end of the race.
Jepkorir and Ruth Bosibori were unable to cope with the searing pace set by gold medal winner Yekaterina Volkova who led from start to finish. Tatanya Petrova, also of Russia won silver.
Jepkorir stayed with the Russian for the first four laps but said she a stitch forced her to drop back.
"We were not really overwhelmed. Our plan was to stay with them to the end but that discomfort from the stitch made it hard.
"All the same, I'm very happy with the bronze because this is my first time to compete in any major international event," said Jepkorir whose best time is 9:52 set in the Athens Grand Prix in July.
Bosibori, who said she also suffered the same problem as her team-mate Jepkorir, recovered from way down in eighth position making a late charge on the home straight to come in fourth.
"I'm definitely not disappointed with my performance.
"I'm sure it could have been better if it was not for the stitch because when I felt better in the final lap, I was able to push into fourth place. So its still good for me," said the bashful All Africa Games champion.
Kenya also posted moderate results in the 1,500m semi-final with Asbel Kiprop and Shedrack Korir qualifying for Sunday's final.
Daniel Kipchirchir Komen was the only casualty in a very close fight for a place in the final.
Kenya-born Lagat
He failed to recover from a fall and finished second from bottom in the first semi-final won by Kenyan born Bernard Lagat who clocked in at 3:42.39.
Lagat warned that the US would be the team to beat for the gold. Alan Webb also of the US is in the final too.
"Watch out for the US boys in the final," said Lagat.
"This is where I want to be. I wanted to run relaxed and smart.
"I don't have tactics for the final, you have to make it up on the race and see what happens."
Asbel Kiprop was third with a time of 3:42.88 in the same heat.
In the second semi final, Korir (3:41.15) put on a gritty performance to sneak into the final as one of the fastest finishers.
He found himself hemmed in on the inside lane and was forced to run the final 80 metres straddling the kerb but still managed to dip in just ahead of Algeria's Antar Zerguelaine.
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