Veteran walk racer Grace Wanjiru will be walking for her second Commonwealth Games medal.
The Commonwealth Games track and field events start tomorrow in Gold Coast’s Carrara Stadium with Kenya’s hopes for the first medals resting on the shoulders of David Bett, Edward Zakayo and Nicholas Kipkorir.
The trio, will, however, face stiff challenge in the 5,000m from 21-year-old Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda who boasts of massive experience in the distance with an impressive Personal Best (PB) time of 12:59.83. He won silver in 10,000m at last year’s IAAF World Championships in London.
Apart from Cheptegei, the Kenyans must also know there is a potential dark horse in the lineup in Mohammed Ahmed of Canada who holds both the 5,000m and 10,000m Canadian national records of 13:01.74 and 27:02.35.
Bett, 26, made his international debut at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada where he won a gold medal in 5000m and was on the podium again at the 2009 World Youth Championships in Brixen, Italy after winning silver in 3000m but he has been dogged by injuries and only made his comeback just in time for the Commonwealth Games.
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“The past few years have been really bad with injury after injury. I started serious training mid last year, and won the Nairobi Cross Country in December and I’m happy with my improvement and will be hoping for the best in Australia,” Bett said before leaving for Gold Coast last week.
2017 World Under-18 Championships 3000m silver medalist Edward Zakayo, the youngster in the team at 17, will be making his senior ranks debut after finishing second at the trials in February. He has personal best of 13:28.2.
Another relatively new face in Kenya’s squad, Nicholas Kipkorir, 20, will also be making his international debut in Australia. He has a PB of 13:11.58. Kenya is also be hoping for glory in women 20km walk finals with veteran Grace Wanjiru tipped to finish in the medal bracket.
Wanjiru, a six-time African Champion and a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist (India, 2010) will walk together with Linda Waweru who will be making her debut at the Club Games. Waweru has bests of 1:39:23 over 20km registered at Durban Africa Athletics Championships in 2016 where she finished sixth.
Wanjiru, 39, set an African record when she won the 2010 African Championships clocking 1:34:19. At the 2016 Olympic Games, Wanjiru finished 42nd after clocking 1:37:49 and will be looking for a podium finish tomorrow.
In the corresponding men's walk race, Samuel Gathimba who rose to international front in 2014 with a silver medal at the African Championships behind Lebogang Shange of South Africa will partner with his friend and training partner Samson Wachira.
Gathimba won gold at the 2016 African Championships crossing the line in a championship record of 1:19:24. But registered a Did Not Finish in Rio.
