RACE AGAINST TIME:Sports stars compete for national exams glory

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

For a long time, sports personalities have been calling shots in their respective specialties, but time has come for them to be tested in a rather not-so familiar territory.

The world beaters (read athletics) are among thousands of candidates, who are preparing to sit for KCPE and KCSE national examinations.

Amos Rono, the Kenya Primary Schools Sports Association Secretary, said the sports personalities will have yet another chance to show the world that they can also excel in classwork.

Not an easy feat though, but as they have been ruling the show in the field, they are ready for the other challenge.

Rono said this year's examination halls will feature elite runners, footballers, volleyball players as well as basketballers, who have always ensured Kenya's sporting fame stays alive.

"It will be interesting, since most of our sporting candidates have represented the country in various sports. They ensured we came out tops in regional, continental and global contests," said Rono.

Richard Kimunyan, the 2014 world junior 3,000m champion, who won the East Africa Secondary Schools Games 10,000m title in Eldoret, headlines Kenya's athletics luminaries, who are sitting for KCSE.
Kimunyan, the reigning Commonwealth Youth Games, is at Kirobon High School in Nakuru County.

"I have been training hard, while also studying, as I prepare for the national exams. The East Africa schools 10,000m race was my last before the national exams," he said.

Kimunyan, who is also the Africa Youth silver medalist, said he used the 10,000m showdown as a yard stick to test his mettle in the big boys' league. He will graduate to the senior cadre next year–and expects to excel in KCSE.

It will be a similar spectacle in Nairobi's Riruta Central School, where 2014 Africa cross country junior silver medalist Andrew Lorot will sit for his papers.

He will be joined by his kid brother Nixon Kiplagat, a member of the national squad to the Africa cross country championships in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in March.

Lorot, who also won the regional secondary schools 5,000m race, has featured prominently in local and global cross country meetings.

At the same time, Mwanahalima Adams, the Harambee Starlets striker, will sit for her exams at St. John's Kaloleni Secondary School in Mombasa.