Rudisha leads hunt for 800m gold this afternoon
Athletics
By
JONATHAN KOMEN
| Aug 25, 2015
It will be another moment of riveting action as Kenyans take to the track to contest for medals in the sprint and middle-distance races at the 15th IAAF World Athletics Championships in Beijing, China, this afternoon.
World 800m record-holder David Rudisha, junior champion Alfred Kipketer and Ferguson Rotich, fourth at the Commonwealth Games, will battle to reclaim the two-lap race title against Musaeb Abdulrahman Ball of Qatar, Adam Kszczot of Poland and Pierre-Ambroise Bosse of France at 3:55pm.
Kenya’s 400m hurdlers Nicholas Bett and Boniface Mucheru will be targeting a maiden podium place at 3:25pm.
On Sunday, Mucheru ran a personal best of 48.29 improving from 48.79. Mucheru and Bett had trained in Finland in the run-up to the national trials and have vowed to strike medals this afternoon.
“I have improved a lot especially on hurdle seven and eight. We want to win medals in the finals,” he said via telephone.
Bett, who comes from Simat in Uasin Gishu County and trains under Hinne Kozy in Finland, said: “I miscalculated in hurdle four and five. I hope everything will work according to plan.”
Yesterday, former World Youth 2,000m steeplechase champion Rosefline Chepng’etich staged a surprise in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase shaving almost 10 seconds off her personal best with 9:25.91.
Hyvin Jepkemoi, the current world number two and a sixth-place finisher at the 2013 World Championships, won this heat in 9:26.19, closely followed by Ethiopia’s world and Olympic bronze medallist Sofia Assefa in 9:26.47.
Virginia Nyambura, who has been in sublime form this season, qualified for the finals in 9:28.50.
Fadwa Sidi Madane of Morocco set a personal best of 9:27.87 for the fourth place and Bahrain’s Ruth Jebet was fifth in 9:27.93 to qualify for the final tomorrow at 4.00pm.
In the women’s 400m, Joyce Zakary set a new national record of 50.71 behind Jamaican champion Christine Day in heat three.
Zakary, a police officer, told IAAF: “I am so happy. I did not know that I could run fast like this. It is too fast! I did not expect anything like this. My target: I pray that I go to the final. I think that we Kenyans will move more and more to sprints.”
But Maureen Chelagat, who qualified for semi finals as the fastest loser in 51.40 (her personal best), said via WhatsApp: “I executed the race almost well, I’m pretty happy with my new PB, I am looking forward to lower the PB in semis, I hope I finish strongly (sic).”