Kenya’s first batch from IAAF World Championships return on Monday

BY JONATHAN KOMEN

MOSCOW, RUSSIA: The Kenyan team is scheduled to land at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport tonight where a red carpet reception awaits them.

The team left Domodedovo Airport in Moscow at 1.00am to Dubai, where they will stop for nine hours before proceeding to Nairobi.

But the team will be without more than 10 top athletes who have headed for the remaining IAAF Diamond League leg meetings in Europe to chase the Diamond Race overall title.

Paul Kipsiele Koech, Anthony Chemut and Eunice Sum will run in Stockholm on Thursday, while others will head to Zurich (August 29) and Brussels (September 6).

Kipsiele, who finished fourth in the 3,000m steeplechase final on Thursday, is out to defend his Diamond League title, having won it since inception in 2010.

“It’s unfortunate I did not win a medal at the championship here. Let me head to Stockholm and give it my best,” Kipsiele said shortly before he left to Sheremetyevo Airport yesterday. 

The team produced fairly good results although they fell short of matching the 2011 Daegu Worldswhere they won 17 medals (seven gold, six silver and four bronze), and finished third in the medal standings.

The absence of defending champions Vivian Cheruiyot (5,000m and 10,000m), world 800m record holder David Rudisha and two-time world marathon champion Abel Kirui stood out as a big blow for Kenya –as they could not retain these titles.

Victories by Edna Kiplagat (marathon), Milcah Chemos and Ezekiel Kemboi (3,000m steeplechase made it clear that Kenya is still an athletics powerhouse.

Kenya won its maiden 1,500m medal at the world championships as world indoor champion Hellen Obiri bagging bronze. They also won elusive 10,000m medal in Paul Tanui’s bronze.

All Africa Games javelin champion Julius Yego, who was the team captain, entered history as he finished fourth, missing the medal bracket by a whisker.

Kenya’s 4x400m men finished 23rd in the 4x400m overall in the heats to bow out of contention but Alphas Kishoya, Moses Kertich, Antony Chemut and Mike Mukomba return home with their held high after test their young legs here.

Kishoyian said the competition was tougher than the Olympics but expressed optimism that they would perform well in future.

The new generation of athletes virtually failed to impress in 800m races and marathon. And for the first time in many years, Kenyan athletes missed out in the men’s 800m final at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Luzhniki Stadium here in Moscow, Russia.

The medal prospects in Olympian Anthony Chemut and new catch Ferguson Rotich fizzled out on Sunday night. Rotich was disqualified for stepping into lane one before the 300-metre mark on the first lap, while Chemut finished fifth in 1:46.06 in his heat.

Former World Youth 400m silver medalist Jeremiah Mutai was boxed out in the preliminary round, finishing seventh in the fourth heat and missing the cut. Ethiopia’s World junior bronze medalist Aman Mohammed (1:44.71) won the title.