World champ Ndereba not decided on Marathon Race

By Mutwiri Mutuota

With most top athletes outlining their plans for the World Championships in Berlin in August, reigning women’s marathon champion, Catherine Ndereba, is still undecided whether to go for a third title.

"I have stepped up my training for the spring marathon season, but so far I have not decided on my programme for the season. I might defend my title if called upon," Ndereba said yesterday.

The world governing body reserves slots for defending champions in the global championships, while Athletics Kenya (AK) general secretary, David Okeyo, told FeverPitch that considerations for the national marathon teams for Berlin would be made known after the Paris, Rotterdam, Boston and London Marathons.

Too early

The two-time (2003 and 2007) world gold medallist ran 2:30:37 in Osaka for her second global title before winning Olympic silver (2:27:36) in Beijing last year. She trains in Ngong.

Ndereba, who has also won four Boston Marathon (2000, 2001, 2004 and 2005) titles, said it was too early to determine whether she would be invited by the Boston Athletics Association, the event organisers, to go for a fifth attempt.

"They take their time to come up with the line-up. There are many marathons around that time (April) such as London and Paris, among others that I could feature in," she said.

She is the only woman to chalk four wins in Boston and has also won the Chicago twice. Ndereba was speaking at the sidelines of a function where her Kenya Prisons Athletics team received Sh200,000, trophies and goods from Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and Nairobi Sports House.

The sponsorship will go towards Saturday’s Prisons Cross-Country Championships to be held at the Prisons Staff Training College in Ruiru.

Senior Assistant Commissioner for Prisons Daniel Mutua, who is also the chairman of Prisons Sports Council, said preparations for the event were complete.

While presenting the cheque, KCB, Director of Treasury, Timothy Kabiru, said the financial institution will spend Sh23m on its volleyball, football, chess, basketball and rugby teams for the season.