Absence of sprinters as Kenyans brace for show-stopping contest

BY JOSEPH NGURE

As the World Championships trials get underway at the Nyayo National Stadium today, the main focus will be on middle and long distance events.

The World Championships team to Moscow will be named at the end of the competition, normally seen as a mini-World Championships because of its high profile and cut-throat competition.

Although Kenya will be expecting medal harvest in the events starting from 800m to marathons, one class of athletes would be watching the unfolding events at the trials from the sidelines.

Like many other Africa athletics powerhouses, the sprinters, the class who run 100m 200m, 400 metres, relays and hurdles, are a neglected lot.

This cadre of athletes is being seen as an ‘inferior’ lot when we come to international assignment because their chances of bringing in medals are slim compared to nations like the Americas, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, etc.

That not a single athlete from Kenya has attained the mandatory international entry standards in the shorter events is concern for worry for those who made it in the past.

“We are really failing by neglecting our sprinters. The sprints are the gateway in developing an 800m and 1,500m runner. Why are we forgetting the simple fact?’” lamented Billy Koskei, a retired hurdler.

Koskei, himself a Commonwealth 400m hurdles champion, said the future of 800 and 1,500 metres depends on the investment in sprints, calling them the genesis of other events.

“Kenyans don’t lack sprinters. Go and watch those boys and girls during primary and secondary schools championships. We have great sprinters. But who is developing them?” posed Koskei, now a retired Sports Officer.

Although local sprinters have won medals during international engagement in the past including in the Olympics (Munich 1972), they are only heard of during lesser competitions like the All Africa Games, Commonwealth and Africa Championships.

“Coaches should change their attitude about the sprinters. Without sprinters, there will be no middle distance athletes. Let us move the sprinters gradually from 100m to 200m, from 400m to 800 and 1,500m,” said the former hurdler.

The drought and hunger for sprinters is exemplified by the national records that have remained untested for decades.

Joyce Odhiambo, 50, and Ruth Waithera, 55, are still the holders of the national records of 11.62 (100m) and 23.37 and 51.56 (200m and 400m) set in Nairobi and Los Angeles, US, in 1987 and 1984 respectively. Another veteran, Rose Tata-Muya, still boasts of 55.94 400m hurdles national record set in 1987 during the 4th All Africa Games in Nairobi.

In the men’s domain, Joseph Gikonyo and the late Samson Kitur are still in the history books after their 200m and 400m national records, set in 1991 and 1992, remained unbroken.