Charles Nyende
7 June 2008
column
Nairobi — Sometimes you hear the dooms day people say Kenya's era as an athletic force is coming to an end. This normally follows some major meeting where Kenyans have been left flat on their backs by mainly Ethiopians. People then start questioning what has happened to our runners and proceed to give advice on what should be done.
These negative notions are of course a pile of nonsense. We as a nation, and all modesty observed, shall continue to show the opposition a clean pair of heels. The country's conveyor belt just can't stop churning out the talent. Look at last season. We saw several little known athletes make their mark on the international scene and put the rest of the field on notice.
Teenager Aspel Kiprop successfully moved from cross country to track and announced his huge potential with an All Africa Games 1,500m gold medal. Another teenager Ruth Bosibori, running barefoot, scathed the July 5th Stadium in Algiers to win the pan-African 3,000m steeplechase title.
World leading mark
But the sensation of the season was no doubt "Eldoret Express" Janeth Jepkosgei. The 24-year-old slender, graceful runner, after many also runs earlier in her career, exploding into the limelight in 2006 with a commanding 1 minute 57.88 seconds win at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
The former Singore Girls High School student won The African Athletic Championships the same year. She was virtually unbeatable in the world and sealed this fearsome reputation when she became the first Kenyan female to win an 800m gold at the World Championship with a time of 1:56.18, a world leading mark then and Kenyan record.
It was the worlds' fastest time since 2003 until last month in Hengelo, the Netherlands, where new season sensation Pamela Jelimo, only 18 years, turned in a world leading time of 1:55.76. And the former sprinter was only warming up.
The new find, watched by a 67,000-strong crowd scorched the track at the 1936 Olympic Stadium in Berlin two weeks ago to post a new African record of 1:54.99 breaking the previous record of 1:55.19 set by the great Maria Mutola way back in 1994.
It was in fact the fastest time over that distance in over a decade. And remember Jelimo is just 18, six months shy of her next birthday. If anyone can breach the world record of 1:53.28 set by Czech's Jarmila Kratochvilova in Munich in July 1983, it is Jelimo.
Then there is this other male sensation over the same two lap distance, David Rudisha.
The 19-year-old Kenyan is easily one of the brightest world prospects in the 800m.
After winning the World Junior title last year he showed his enormous abilities with an emphatic win of the African Athletic Championship in Addis Ababa. He is also the World and African junior champion.
Through their own hard work and that dream every Kenyan athlete has of conquering the world, these athletes and other to come will keep our fearsome reputation os great middle and long distant runners intact.
Pinnacle of sports
Through hard work and a burning dream, another runner is poised to create history. And he is not Kenyan.
Amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius of South Africa will compete at the Beijing Olympics this year if he meets the 400m qualifying time.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne last month lifted a ban imposed by the IAAF on Postorius competing against able-bodied athletes, opening the door for him to seek Olympic glory.
Pistorius, 21, was born without fibulas which led to his legs being amputated below the knee as a child.
But by the age of 11 he was playing rugby in school as well as water polo, tennis and wrestling.
He took up running in 2004 and won gold in the 200m at the Paralympics Games in Athens.
He thereafter started competing with able-bodied men and now has a chance to contest at the pinnacle of world sports, the Olympics.
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