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Kenya: Another Team Sweep Expected in Steeplechase
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The Nation (Nairobi)
23 July 2008
Posted to the web 23 July 2008
Sammy Kitula
Nairobi
The team of Ezekiel Kemboi, Richard Mateelong and Brimin Kipruto hope for another show like the one they put on at the World Championships in Osaka where they took all the three top medals on offer.
The men's 3000 metres steeplechase is expected to be a Kenyan affair, where 2004 Olympic gold medallist, Kemboi, will attempt to become the first Kenyan steeplechaser to win consecutive titles at the Games.
"Apart from expecting a clean sweep of the medals in Beijing like in Osaka and Athens in 2004, I want to stay on course of retaining the gold," said the 26-year-old policeman.
World record attempt
Paul Kipsiele Koech, who last week dropped off world record pace in the last two laps of the 3,000m steeplechase and set a world leading performance of 8:00.57 in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium, replaced Mateelong in the Athens trip and finished third, but he has had problems running at a high altitude.
A hamstring injury ruled out Kipsiele from the trials for Osaka.
Likewise during the Beijing trials, he failed to qualify but was given a reprieve after he was included in the team as a reserve.
Depending on things work out for him in China, he might have to wait for the 2009 World Championships before getting another chance to put on the national jersey.
"Finishing in the top three position was my target and I got it.
"The most important thing is I made the team and now what remains is bringing the gold home. Other records will not count in Beijing," said Kipruto.
Since he left high school in 1999, Kemboi was to wait until 2002, to finish second behind compatriot Saif Saeed Shaheen then (Stephen Cherono) at the Commonwealth Games held in Manchester.
The same year, Kemboi was originally fourth at the African Championships in Tunis, Tunisia, but was later awarded bronze after the winner Moroccan Brahim Boulami received a doping suspension.
While competing at the 2003 World Championships in Paris, Kemboi had a gruelling battle with former team mate Shaheen who represented his new country, Qatar, before the Qatari pulled away from the exhausted Kemboi to win by less than a second.
Kemboi, who is also an All Africa Games gold medallist, rose to a main favourite status at the Athens Olympics in the absence of Shaheen.
The National Olympic Committee of Kenya had refused to waive the three-year eligibility delay for established athletes who switch nationalities.
The race went very much according to form, with the three Kenyans - Kemboi, Kipruto and Kipsiele -pushing the pace from the second lap and soon leaving the rest of the field behind.
The trio swept the medals with Kemboi winning gold, 0.3 seconds ahead of Kipruto. And it is on the basis of this foundation that the three want to build on to write history at the Games.
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With his seasonal best at 8:07.64, 24-year old Mateelong, will gun for the top honours after playing second fiddle to Kipruto and Olympic champion Kemboi during the World athletics Championships in Osaka.
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