Komen’s prediction on London games

By Oscar Pilipili

3,000m world record holder Daniel Komen has expressed faith in Team Kenya ahead of the London Olympic Games.

Speaking at Eldoret Polytechnic, Komen was particular in his predictions, saying the women’s 10,000m trio of Vivian Cheruiyot, Joyce Chepkirui and Sally Kipyego has great capability to conquer the world in London.

“I’m certain the women’s team will do well in London but for men, we will have to wait and see,” Komen said while attending Paul Bitok International volleyball in Eldoret on Sunday.

Komen, who holds 3,000m world record of seven minutes 20.67 he set in Italy in 1996, stated that the double world champion Cheruiyot (10,000m and 5,000m) will rule the distances for a long time to come and tipped her for a gold medal in London.

Kenyan dominance

Komen was quick to add that Team Kenya was very strong and was likely to harvest more medals than what the country achieved at 2008 Beijing Olympics.

 “I was there when the Olympics team was selected and I can testify that this is a very strong team with a blend of experienced and promising athletes,” he said.

 “I can predict Kenya’s dominance in middle and long distance races starting from 800m to 10,000m,” he said.

Komen, however, raised concern over the descending graph of the number of disciplines in which Kenya is going to be represented in London.

Kenya will be represented in three disciplines namely: Athletics, swimming, boxing and weight lifting.

Komen said: “It’s disappointing that Kenya still depends more on athletics to gain medals several years after independence.

“National Olympic Committee-Kenya, the Government and federations should work closely to ensure all sports disciplines are equally developed to avoid the tradition of relying on athletics to win us medals in international events.”

no to bristol

He singled out boxing as one of the sports that are headed to the abyss and called for quick action to reverse the trend.

“I can remember clearly that at the 1988 Seoul Olympics Games Kenya sent a full squad of 12 boxers and they managed to clinch a gold (through the late Robert Wangila) and bronze of Chris Sande,” he said.

“The number of boxing representation has reduced with time to just two boxers —  a man and woman — who are travelling to London,” he regretted.

Komen also added his voice to the raging debate over plans by Nock to have Team Kenya train in Bristol in the UK in preparations for the Summer Games, saying this was likely to affect the performance of the athletes.

He argued that the relocation of training camp to Bristol was a disaster in making since the city lies in low altitude.