By Joylene Sing'oei
Double world champion Vivian Cheruiyot, Sally Kipyego and Joyce Chepkurui will descend on the Olympic Stadium tonight to begin what could be Kenya’s most successful Olympic outing.
The trio will run in the women’s 10,000m final on the first day of the highly-anticipated athletics programme as Kenyans hope to bag the first medal at the London Olympics.
The race will take place at 11.25pm (Kenyan time), the last in today’s athletics programme.
Vivian Cheruiyot is only 28-years-old and the current women’s world champion in both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres race, which she secured in Daegu, Korea last year. Pamela Jelimo was the first Kenyan woman ever to bring home an Olympic gold medal in 2008 from Beijing after she won the 800 metres.
This year, however, Vivian is expected to bring home not one, but two gold medals at the London Olympics.
Vivian was born September 11, 1983 in Rift Valley. Being a world-class athlete did not come on a silver platter for her. She has been training since she was 14-years-old.
All that hard work has finally paid off because she is currently one of the world’s finest runners.
She first came into the international athletic limelight at the age of 15 when she won the junior silver medal at the IAAF World Cross Country Championship.
She currently holds the Kenyan record in the 2,000 metres, 5,000 metres, two miles and 3,000 metres indoors. She is also the all-time third fastest woman in the 5,000 metres and the 2012 Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year.
