Nairobi — The captain of the Kenyan team to the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Emily Ngii, has asked Kenyans to pray for them as they seek to come away from Hungary with a basketful of medals.
Ngii described the one-week championships as a ferocious war during which Team Kenya will be battling other nations for glory.
"We are ready and have prepared well. We are eager to bring the big prize back home and all we ask of Kenyans to pray and support us as we compete in Budapest. This is war...we are going for war with only one mission - to collect medals," the Commonwealth Games 10,000m racewalk champion said.
The 36-year-old will be making her second appearance at the global showpiece, following on from last year's edition in Oregon, United States, where she finished a disappointing 30th in the women's 20km walking race.
However, that performance at the 18th edition of the championships was only a blip on what was otherwise a glory-filled 2022 for Ngii.
She clocked 1:34:30 to win the African title for the women's 20km race walk in Reduit, Mauritius in June last year before collecting bronze in the women's 10,000m race walk at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Ngii will be heading to Eastern Europe full of hope and confidence following an unbeaten streak in 2023 thus far.
She was crowned the national champion in June after clinching the women's 20km racewalk in addition to reigning supreme in the 2nd and 6th Athletics Kenya Track and Field Weekend Meeting.
Also hopeful of good fortunes in Hungary is the 2016 Olympics javelin silver medalist Julius Yego, who will be making his sixth appearance at the World Championships.
Yego, who will be deputising Ngii, is hoping Budapest will be a repeat of Beijing in 2015 where Kenya lead the medal standings.
"The team is ready...we have really trained well. We are looking forward to reclaiming the title we won in 2015. I was part of that team. Rest assured, this team has trained well and everybody is looking forward to doing their best. We pray that everything goes well and I hope we will come back home celebrating like we did in 2015. For me, I will do my best...I am back and see you in Budapest," the 2015 world champion said.
The team met Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba on Thursday evening at the Kenya National Library where they received the national flag as they prepare to depart the country by Monday, latest.
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The CS said the team have the blessings of all Kenyans.
"Please go well...represent us well. We cherish you...we love you. We consider you to be ambassadors...to be the best products that Kenya puts out there in the world. And, here we send you again. I am very happy that the team we are sending out is a mix of incredible experience and youth," he said.
The athletes are set to receive increased allowances as part of the government's revised reward scheme for Kenyan sportspersons.
"The allowances have been revised significantly. We want our athletes to be comfortable both locally when they are preparing to represent us and out there internationally when they are competing," Namwamba said.
The team will depart for batches with the last group expected to fly out on Monday, ahead of the opening ceremony for the championships on August 19.
