Mercy Gakii
6 May 2008
Nairobi — Inspired by Florence Wasike's silver medal in the heptathlon and Sammy Kesikeny's bronze in the javelin at the African Athletics Championships in Addis Ababa, Kenya's coaches will now offer greater attention to the field events in the build-up to the Beijing Olympics.
The team's head coach, Julius Kirwa, said he was happy with the performance of the team despite the stiff competition they faced amid the fiercely partisan Ethiopian home crowd.
Kirwa, who was speaking as the team arrived from Addis Ababa at noon Monday, also praised sprinter Joyce Zakari who was a finalist in the 100 metres dash.
"The athletes have displayed a very high quality performance, an I'm especially impressed by Pamela Chelimo who grabbed gold in the 800 metres and Grace Wanjiru who won gold in the 20-kilometre women's walk," he said.
It was Chelimo's first time to run for Kenya and she clocked an impressive 1:58:70 to win the race, beating multiple world champion Maria Mutola of Mozambique to second place.
"I see her doing better than that at the Olympics," the coach added.
The 19-year-old Chelimo is now being touted as the next champion of the two-lap race, a possible successor of world champion Janeth Jepkosgei who won gold at the previous Africa championships held in Mauritus.
Kirwa has also said that the team to the Beijing Olympics is expected to go into residential training soon. Chelimo said that although the race was very competitive, her high altitude training in Kapsabet helped her to face the challenge of the rainy weather conditions in Ethiopia. "I'm now looking forward to getting the gold medal at the Olympics this August," Chelimo said.
"I also hope that we will compete in the 4x400 metres relay after we won the silver in Addis." She was optimistic that the relay team of herself, Florence Wasike, Charity Wandia, and Joyce Zakari would perform better if they trained for the Olympics as a team.
Asbel Kiprop was happy with his third place finish in the 800 metres saying that his speciality is the 1,500 metres.
"I'm happy with my performance, because my aim was to work on my speed.
"Now I'm working towards qualifying in the 1,500 metres to represent my country at the Beijing Olympics."
The Kenyan team fielded only 40 athletes in Addis compared to South Africa's 72 and Nigeria's 84. South Africa were the overall winners with 22 medals followed by Nigeria with 19. Kenya was fourth with five gold, as many silver and six bronze medals with Ethiopia finishing third with a bigger gold count of six.
Kirwa said his technical team would not rest on its laurels but fish for more medal prospects in the run-up to the Olympics.
Wasike, a silver medallist in the heptathlon, remained optimistic that she will qualify to represent the country in Beijing.
She is also working to qualify in the 400 metres hurdles. She did not compete in the 400 metres race in Addis because of her involvement in the heptathlon and the 4x400m relay. Kenya will host the next edition of the African championships in 2010.
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