Mumias hosts AK meet: Athletes will gauge speed as they focus on national trials

By JOSEPH NGURE

Western Kenya will play host to the fourth and penultimate Athletics Kenya track and field meeting this week.

Mumias Sports Complex will host the two-day championships on Friday and Saturday. Upcoming athletes will will be keen to gauge their speed ahead of the national trials slated for June.

The meeting would also be used to mark the International Association of Athletics Federations World Athletics Day.

It will serve as a build-up for athletes from Western Kenya,  South, North and Central Rift as well as the disciplined forces before the action reverts to the grassroot ahead of three major international events in the athletics calendar.

“We are expecting a full house in Mumias this weekend. Our athletes are preparing for the Youth Olympics and Africa Championships and this meeting will provide the best platform for testing their preparedness,” said Western Regional Athletics Kenya chairman Francis Afundi.

Series meetings

Athletics Kenya was running two parallel weekend series to accomodate newly introduced Safaricom Relay Series and Sprints meet. Each took place on alternating weekends.

The Relay Series, which begun in February in Nairobi, reached the climax at Nyayo Stadium during the national  trials for the inaugural World Relay Championships, which will be held on 24th and 25th May in Nassau, Bahamas.

On March 14th and 15th, AK staged the first of the five track and field weekend Meetings in the South Rift with Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology hosted the openning round, which had low turnout.

Young turks

With elite runners giving the weekend meeting a bye, new talents dominated the two-day competitions with Kericho-based Patrick Rono and Prison’s Miriam Chepkemboi ruling the roost in the 800metres while Lawrence Kemboi (Kenya Prisons) and Purity Cherotich of Sigowet emerged winners in the 3,000metres steeplechase.

After Nakuru, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University in Bondo and Gusii Stadium in Nyanza South have also hosted the series.

Both senior and upcoming athletes are using the build-up series as they prepare for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games on July 23rd to August 3rd and the Africa Senior Athletics Championships that are scheduled for Marrakesh, Morocco from August 10-14.

For the juniors, the series will see them warm-up to the second African Youth Games (Gaborone, May 22-31), IAAF World Junior Championships (Eugene, USA, July 22-27) and the second Youth Olympic Games that takes place in Nanjing, China, on August 16-28.

The Safaricom Relays concluded on Saturday with the yet-to be ratified all-time mark of 17:05.8 set by the quartet of Irene Jelagat, Ann Karindi, Mercy Cherono and Perin Nenkampi in the women’s 4x 1,500m.