Chris Musumba
7 October 2008
Nairobi — The Kenya team to this year's World Half-Marathon flies out Thursday for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, venue of the championship on Saturday.
Kenya, which holds the team title crown, has not lifted the gold medal in the men and women's individual categories, and the nine-man team faces a great challenge in the wake of the Beijing Olympics Games, where Kenya emerged top in Africa and third best in the world after United States and Germany in athletics.
Silver medallist Patrick Musyoka Makau and Pamela Chepchumba (bronze) will lead the Kenyan delegation. The two finished behind Eritrea's Zersanay Tedesse and Lornah Kiplagat of Netherlands respectively in the last championship.
Team manager Patrick Sang, a former world 3,000m steeplechase silver medallist, said all arrangements have been finalised and the team will travel through Johannesburg Thursday before connecting to the Brazilian capital. Two athletes, Mekubo Mogusu and Julia Muraga, will fly straight to Rio from their base in Japan. They will join the rest of the squad on Friday for training.
"We will have one day acclimatising period. We hope the weather will not affect us a great deal. The team is one of the strongest we have at the moment," said Sang.
Athletics Kenya (AK) elections will not stand in the way for the team. Secretary seneral David Okeyo said the entire executive would remain behind to handle the elections, which coincide with the team's departure. Sang, who has been serving at the AK secretariat as an athletes' representative, will be vying for the a committee member slot.
"The election issue will not affect my role as the team manager for this team. We hope to clear with it in the morning and head to the airport," he said.
The Kenya team has Patrick Musyoki, Joseph Nganga, Mekubo Mogusu, Stephen Kibiwott, Lameck Mokono Mosoti (men), Pauline Wangui, Penninah Arusei, Julia Muraga and Pamela Chepchumba (women).
Lameck Mokono Mosoti replaced top ranked Olympic marathon champion Samuel Wanjiru in the Kenyan team.
Five other athletes, Francis Larabar, Elijah Keitany, Lenah Cheruiyot, Philes Ongori and Philomena Cheyech, who were named in the provisional squad, were axed.
Two of the five runners in the men's team have registered a sub 60-minute times. Musyoki has an impressive personal best of 58.56, which he set last year while Stephen Kibiwott has posted (59.54).
The women's field is no less impressive with Chepchumba, who won the Bogota Half-Marathon in July, heading the list. She finished second in the Lisbon half-marathon last month.
It will be the third time that Brazil has hosted a World Athletics Series competition. Manaus city held the World Road Relay Championships in 1998 while Rio staged the World 15km Road Race for women in 1989.
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