Kimathi Kamau in Daegu, South Korea
One, two, three! One, two, three! Was the chant that rent the air on Sunday from the Kenyan camp as the girls claimed podium sweeps in the women marathon and 10,000m events.
On Thursday, the country’s contingent at the 13 Worlds are bracing for the encore when their four runners in the men 3000m steeplechase take to the Daegu Stadium track in the event’s medal race.
Before Sunday, only the men steeplechasers had claimed the podium sweep at the Worlds, in 1997 when Wilson Boit Kipketer, Moses Tanui and Bernard Barmasai cleaned the honours and a decade later in Osaka where Brimin Kipruto, Ezekiel Kemboi and Richard Mateelong copy-pasted the feat.
The latter trio navigated to the finals under boiling conditions with their fourth teammate, Abraham Chirchir, who at 30 is making his belated debut at track and field’s signature event relying on the lottery of the fastest qualifier rule to join them.
Since the 2004 Olympic Games, Kemboi, the defending champion, Kipruto and Mateelong have exchanged top honours at international events.
In their custody are, two Olympic, two Commonwealth and three African titles.
But on Monday, the task at hand was to grab a place in the medal race, which the decorated trio did with aplomb, in some cases, allowing the pretenders, or be they serious challengers, the leeway to have their moment in the sun.
"It was not easy, it was a tough race but the final will be tougher," Kemboi, said.
