Athletics: Tirop wins Ziwa Farmers race

Agnes Jebet Tirop (in white) and Shellah Jelagat, fight it off during the 5th edition of the Ziwa Farmers 10k race in Eldoret yesterday. Tirop won the race. 30.11.2019. PHOTOS BY PETER OCHIENG/STANDARD

World 10,000m bronze medallist Agnes Tirop and former Africa junior cross country champion Nicholas Kimeli won  in the fifth edition of Ziwa Farmer’s Road Race held at Ziwa grounds in Eldoret yesterday.

Tirop, who is also a former World Cross Country champion won the women 10km race in 31:33.9 ahead of  Shellah Jelagat (31:37.2) and Brilliant Jepkorir (31:46.07).

"I didn’t expect to get such good result, but after five kilometres I realised I was headed for a good finish," said Tirop.

The 2016 Africa cross country junior champion Kimeli, won the men’s title after clocking 28:10.5.

“I am happy to win this race for the second time. I knew I will make it. You have seen my closest competitors were just meters away from catching up. That can easily tell you we have talented athletes out there,” Kimeli said after the race.

The founder of the Ziwa road race Lawrence Tanui said the race was introduced to educate farmers on how to improve in farming.

“We started this event to help our farmers, particularly those who cannot afford farm inputs. We are going to plough the farms free of charge, give seeds and other farming requirements. This would eventually take them to the next level of farming,” Tanui said.