Chasing glory

By Oscar Pilipili

With 17 days to 2012 London Olympics Games, Kenyans will for the next 120 hours temporarily shift attention to Barcelona where budding talents shall be chasing top honours in the IAAF World Junior Championships starting today.

Kenya has clinched overall title on three occasions (2000 in Chile, 2006 in China and 2010 in Canada) since the event was inaugurated in Athens, Turkey, in 1986.

Although Kenya has impressive track record, what is raising concern is the fact that they have never retained the overall title.

But the pedigree of the runners the country has dispatched to Barcelona has raised their chances of finishing top on this occasion.

World junior 3,000m-race steeplechase champion Consestus Kipruto leads Team Kenya from the front in his capacity as captain.

Kipruto, whose global leading time of eight minutes 08.93, insists they are ready to defend the title they won in Canada two years ago.

Kipruto, who is one of the most experienced athletes in the Team Kenya, travels to Barcelona one month after finishing fifth in the Samsung Diamond League in Doha last May. He also took part in the World Challenge held in Kawasaki Japan in April and finished second in his speciality.

Kenya’s dominance in this event should continue, having won every year since 1988, but who will it be this time?

Kipruto and teammate Kiplangat Kirui had a one-two finish in the 2,000m steeplechase event last year and have improved to 8:08.92 and 8:11.27 respectively over the longer distance this year.

World junior champion William Malel will not defend the 3,000m gold he won in 2010 in Canada since he has shifted to 5,000m and 10,000m where he hopes to clinch a double.

Kenyan youthful Olympian Faith Chepngetich, who is another medal prospect in Barcelona, will be looking to add another world title to the ones she won at the World Youth Championships and World Cross Country Championships last year.

best junior

She has run 4:03.82 this year, nearly five seconds faster than the next best junior in the world.

Kenya’s hopes in the 800m rests on Timothy Kitum who has also qualified for the 2012 London Olympics.

Kitum’s main challenger could be Nijel Amos of Botswana who has also qualified for the Olympics.

Amos, fifth at last year’s World Youth Championships, has improved enormously this year and ran 1:43.11 in the German city of Mannheim last month to go second on the world junior all-time list, while Kitum, third in Lille 12 months ago, clocked 1:43.94 at the Kenyan Olympic Trials.

Coach Japheth Kemey informed FeverPitch in a message that they will defend the title in Barcelona.

He said: “Kenya has won the Championships for three times but has never defended it. We want to make history of defending the trophy and with the quality of players in the team we can achieve the goal.”