AK: Top stars snub Club Games set for Australia
Athletics
By
JONATHAN KOMEN
| Jan 17, 2018
Athletics Kenya has defended its marathon squad to the 21st Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
Paul Mutwii, the AK senior vice president in charge of competitions, brushed aside criticism of the choice of runners, saying the selection team comprising coaches David Letting, Richard Metto, Japhet Kemei, and Duncan Musyoki had done a good job.
Yesterday social media were abuzz with criticism that the AK panel had failed to select Kenya’s best marathoners for Australia.
“From April last year, we called on all athletes interested in the Commonwealth Games to register with Athletics Kenya or the National Olympic Committee of Kenya to have their names entered in the Gold Coast 2018 system. But they did not, despite numerous reminders. We told them that after November, no names could be entered into the Gold Coast 2018 system.
“Some athletes registered and others declined to honour our call-up later. We tried reaching them in vain. Some of them said their managers had entered them in big races in April and, therefore, they could not make the national team,” said Mutwii.
Furious reactions greeted AK's decision to pick not-so-familiar athletes to the Commonwealth Games.
Noah Ng’eny, the 2000 Sydney Olympic 1,500m champion, faulted the selectors.
“Kenya has a huge pool of talent. And I am surprised they named athletes who have little to show in their athletics careers. An athlete must have performed well four to six months before getting named. But I am getting surprised to see an athlete who has been out of action for long,” said Ng’eny.
Two-time world half marathon winner Geoffrey Kamworor said he was ready to gun for a third win.
“I want to be a three-time world half marathon winner. Now that Mo Farah has stepped up into marathon, I hope we can win the three top places. We will look at the line-ups in other countries."
World 21km Joyceline Jepkosgei leads women’s onslaught to the IAAF World Half Marathon (WHC) Championships set for Valencia, Spain, on March 24.
Kamworor won his first title in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2014 and then successfully defended the crown in Cardiff, Wales, in 2016.
It will be a reenactment of the Cardiff showdown where Kamworor marshalled forces with world half marathon silver medallist Bedan Karoki to silence homeboy Mo Farah, who enjoyed huge home ground support.
The Gold Coast Commonwealth team features world cross country silver medallist Leonard Barsoton, two-time Eldoret Family Bank 21km winner Jorum Okombo Lumbasi, and Barselius Kipyego, the Usti nad Labem half marathon winner in the Czech Republic last year. Kenya Defence Forces’ Alex Oloitiptip, a cross country regular, is a reserve.
All the athletes posted sub-59 in the half marathon last season- Kamworor (59:10), Kipyego (59:51), Lumbasi (58:48), and Oloitiptip (58:51). Karoki ran 59:36 under rainy conditions in Cardiff.