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Kenya: Cheruiyot Leads Beijing Squad
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The Nation (Nairobi)
24 April 2008
Posted to the web 24 April 2008
Sammy Kitula
Nairobi
Less than 72 hours after winning his fourth Boston Marathon title, Robert "Mwafrika" Cheruiyot has been named in the eight-man Kenya marathon team for the Beijing Olympic Games.
Others to make the cut are current London Marathon title holder Martin Lel and Samuel Wanjiru, who finished second in same race.
The women's team is made up of four-time Boston Marathon winner Catherine Ndereba, three-time Lisbon Half-Marathon winner Selina Kosgei and this year's Paris Marathon winner, Martha Komo.
After excellent performances by Kenya's elite runners in major world marathons, Athletics Kenya officials were spoilt for choice as they selected the final squad for the Summer Olympics.
"Kenyan runners have participated in more than 25 races this year, where they posted good times.
"It was a very difficult decision for us to take, but this was our final list of runners," said Kiplagat.
Cheruiyot, who won in the Boston race for the first time in 2003 before adding wins in each of the past two years, cemented a three-peat with a gutsy first-place time of 2 hours, 7 minutes, 46 seconds.
Running into a head wind, Cheruiyot finished 32 seconds off the course record he set in 2006.
Through the recent good performances by Kenyan runners, the AK chairman was optimistic that they would land Kenya the elusive marathon gold medal.
"Kenyan athletes have reigned supreme in London, Turin, Rotterdam, Paris and most recently in Boston, feats that make them one of the favourites for Olympic silverware," he said.
Despite all the domination in big marathons around the world, no Kenyan has won an Olympic marathon gold medal.
The best performance remains Eric Wainaina's silver in Sydney eight years ago.
Former World marathon record holder Paul Tergat ruled himself out of contention for Beijing, joining the ranks of Haile Gebre Selassie, who will also skip the games.
World athletic champion, Luke Kibet and William Kipsang were selected as stand-by runners in the men's team, while Rita Jeptoo Sitienei will be a reserve in the women's side.
Margaret Okayo, Alice Timbilil and Catherine Kurui were not as lucky, failing to make the final squad.
Kiplagat said that the athletes have until Monday to confirm, in writing, of their willingness to participate at the games.
"The selected runners have until next week on Monday, by when they should have written to us. We will be very strict with time, as we need them to start their preparations in earnest," said the chairman.
Kiplagat noted that for the first time, in the history of Kenya's participation in the Olympics marathon, top runners have shown interest of taking part.
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"The runners have realised the importance of Olympics, as it (marathon) will help them in their seeding," he said.
The selection came against the backdrop of several top elite runners having voiced their concern on the criteria, upon which, AK has been using to pick its representatives in the World championships and Olympics.
Though, the first focus will be to win the Olympics, most of these athletes according to Kiplagat, have the capacity and strength to challenge for the World record time.
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