Commonwealth 1,500m champ says training at sea-level before Olympics will nullify high altitude gains

Commonwealth Games 1,500m champion Silas Kiplagat has faulted National Olympic Committee of Kenya's move to train the Kenya team in Bristol before the London Olympics. Kiplagat said he will not travel as he feels training at low altitude will disrupt his programme ahead of the games. He said it will nullify all the gains he has made after training in high altitude. "I have trained all along in high altitude and training in Bristol which is low altitude area may affect my performance and those of other athletes in the middle and long distance races" added Kiplagat

Kiplagat said he would rather train on home soil with one or two days training in the United Kingdom ahead of the Olympics. "The conditions here are very good for me and the middle distance runners and I want to believe NOCK will make sense by letting us train on home soil," Kiplagat said.

NOCK had struck an arrangement with the British government to have Kenya athletes heading for the Olympics train in Bristol for three weeks ahead of the Olympics next month Kiplagat, who clinched the Olympics trials 1,500m race posting 3:37.60 said he had learnt his lesson from last year's World championships in Daegu where he looked on course to winning the world title before he was pipped by Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop. "I have learnt my lessons from Daegu and winning today has given me confidence to go and win the gold in London," Kiplagat said on Saturday.

The athlete expectes a competitive contest in London with Ethiopia's Mekonen Gebremedhin, Djibouti's Aynaleh Souleiman and Algeria's Taofik Makhloufi expected to be chasing honours in London alongside holder Kiprop. Kiplagat who has the fastest time in the world this year, 3:29.63, set in Doha said he has no plans of running in the Grand Prix meetings before the Olympic Games. "My main goal this year is to win the Olympic gold so I will continue the Grand Prix after the Olympics," he said.

Reigning world and Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop said he was trying to avoid getting boxed in traffic in the race where he finished third. "I did not want to get caught up in traffic and I had to stay behind and make my move in the last four hundred metres," he said. He observed that the team selected was strong and Kwenya will definitely be one of the frontrunners in London.