Chris Musumba
25 April 2008
Nairobi — The 2003 All Africa Games 400m gold medallist Ezra Sambu has withdrawn from the Africa Athletics championships team with a muscle strain.
Head coach Julius Kirwa said Sambu pulled a muscle in training and will be replaced by Kenya Prisons George Kwoba and Thomas Musembi. Haron Keitany has also been included in the squad to compete in the 1,500m race. He finished third during the trials and has been recalled to the camp at Nyayo stadium. He will team up with Gideon Gathimba and Geoffrey Rono in the four-lap race.
The team of 39 athletes leaves for Addis Ababa on Sunday. Coach Kirwa has conceded that Kenya's inexperienced team of long distance runner face a daunting task against tough opposition at Africa's premier track and field event. Kirwa said elite runners he had expected to make the team did not show up for the trials and this left them with no other alternative but to focus on the young athletes.
Perennial rivals
The coach expressed his concern with the women team in 5,000m and 10,000m where top athletes like Vivian Cheruiyot, Priscah Jepleting and Sylvia Kibet gave the trials a miss.
Kenya's perennial rivals Ethiopia, have announced a strong squad of their best runners like Tirunesh Dibaba the world champion in 5,000m and Masaret Defar. But Kirwa says he has faith in his young squad that will have world junior 3,000m champion Veronica Nyaruai, Esther Chemutai and Grace Momanyi in the 5,000m. Commonwealth Games 10,000m Lucy Kabuu is the only competitor in the event. "Ethiopians will be running at home. It is necessary for them to parade their strongest team. However, pressure is all on them and we intend to thrive in our underdog status to stage a few surprises," said Kirwa.
"The squad we have in the middle and sprint races is the strongest we have had in recent past. They showed their might in Bambous, Mauritius in 2006," said the coach.
The current rains have disrupted training programmes but the team has soldiered on looking to beat the Ethiopians on their own turf and retain the title they won in Mauritius. Many athletes will be seeking Olympic qualification times but they will also have to contend with the high altitude of Addis Ababa July 31 is the deadline for Olympic qualification. Ethiopia have forecasted a clean sweep for their distance runners at next week's African Athletics Championships. More than 2,000 athletes from 43 nations will compete in Addis Ababa at the April 30-May 4 event, which will provide a good chance to warm up for August's Beijing Olympics. "All of our internationally-tested athletes are expected to win gold medals in their respective fields," said Ethiopia's top athletics official, Dube Jillo.
Olympic champion and world record holder Kenenisa Bekele will lead the 10,000 metres squad, which also features Olympic silver medallist, Sileshi Sihine, while Tariku Bekele heads the 5,000 metres team.
World champion Tirunesh Dibaba will compete in the 10,000 metres women's event, while the 5,000 metres squad includes Meseret Defar -- the Olympic and world champion at that distance. (Additional reporting by Reuters)
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
