By JONATHAN KOMEN
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| Augustine Choge wins the men’s 3,000m race during the indoor meeting at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2010. [photo: AP] |
Kenya team left yesterday to the World Indoor Championships that runs in Sopot, Poland, on Friday to Sunday.
All the eight athletes, except world indoor bronze medalist Augustine Choge, left aboard Qatar Airlines yesterday. Choge and team manager Abraham Mutai will leave today at 4:45pm.
Mutai was upbeat that the team will improve the pecking order in Poland, having finished fifth in previous championships in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2012.
“We have a strong team. I am confident they are equal to the task,” said Mutai.
Athletics Kenya will pick one team for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland and the 19th Africa Senior Athletics Championships set for Marrakech, Morocco in August.This is against the previous selection criteria where top three athletes earned slots in global contests while lesser positions went to the continental shows.
Reviewed calendar
AK has also reviewed its calendar of events and brought forward dates for the local track and field competitions to meet the June 11th deadline to submit names for the Commonwealth Games.
The national track and field trials will be held on June 5 and 7 at Nyayo National Stadium to select team for Africa Championships and the Commonwealth Games.
“Initially selected two teams, which looked like we were not taking Africa competitions seriously but we have changed. We will take all events seriously to lower costs of having two teams in a residential camp. We do not have money for two teams,” AK President Isaiah Kiplagat said yesterday during a press conference at Riadha House.
Kiplagat, who is an IAAF Council member, said Africa Championships was vital as it is used as a yard stick in selecting the Africa team to Inter-continental championships set for Marrakech in September.
“There is cause for alarm. Even Ethiopia selects one team for Commonwealth Games. An athlete must give reasons for not competing in both competitions,” he said.
Kiplagat also said AK has suspended all road races, which the local federation has not sanctioned. “There is an upsurge of road races across which we are not informed. Some people want to use them to exploit athletes by getting sponsorship and plough back little money as little as Sh10,000 to the athletes.”
He went on: “We are putting them (unsanctioned races) on hold until the Road Races Commission, chaired by Moses Tanui, comes up with rules to regulate them. We do not know who measured the route, feeding areas, doing tests, age vetting and others.”
David Okeyo, the AK vice President, said the change of calendar will also allow schools to prepare teams for the Africa Youth Games in Botswana, Olympic Youth Games in China and World Junior Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
