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Kenya: Nyaruai And Bosibori Prepare for the Biggest Assignment
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The Nation (Nairobi)
19 July 2008
Posted to the web 21 July 2008
Sammy Kitula
Nairobi
Despite failing to win any medal for the country at previous Olympic Games, women's 3000 steeplechase runners, Veronica Nyaruai, Ruth Bosibori and Eunice Jepkorir, want to change history.
Nyaruai, who made her name as a junior prodigy, winning numerous honours, will lead other compatriots in Beijing.
Nyaruai set a personal best of 9:03.01 for 3,000m when she finished second to Priscah Cherono during the Confederation of Africa Athletics meeting in Nairobi. Her time of 8:52.9 during the 2005 national world youth trials was the prelude to her victory in the world youth title in Marrakech, Morocco (9:01.61).
Keen on bagging the elusive medal, Nyaruai has vowed to improve on her jumping skills.
"Initially, my jumping style was poor but after a bit of practice and mastering, I am getting it well," Nyaruai said.
Also in the team is world junior champion, Ruth Bosibori, who used to run barefoot even on tartan tracks regardless of the weather, and, started running in 2003 while in Form Two.
The 20-year-old Bisobori was inspired to take up the sport by Commonwealth Games 5000m champion Isabella Ochichi and four-time Boston Marathon winner and former world record holder, Catherine Ndereba.
Winning formula
"I heard much about the two and wanted just to be like them one day," she said.
The last born in family of two brothers and one sister, Bosibori ran the 5,000m, 10,000m and steeplechase, the event she excelled at most, while studying at Kebirichi Secondary School in Masaba District.
Victory in last year's All Africa Games in Algiers, helped her form a winning formula. With a world leading time of 9:11.18, 26-year old Eunice Jepkorir completes trio's team. During the Bislett Games in Oslo last year, she broke the Kenyan record after clocking 9:19.44.
Two weeks later, Jepkorir set a new African and Commonwealth record of 9:14.52. Uganda's Inzikuru held the previous record of 9:15.04. Last month in Huelva, Spain, she bettered her African Record to 9:11.18.
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Other than Inzikuru, other challengers are Russians, Gulnara Galkina (9:14.77) and Yekaterina Volkova (9:18.24).
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