Kenya misses medal again in men's 400m race

Boniface Mweresa in action in Birmingham.[Courtesy]

The National men's 400m Champion Boniface Mweresa narrowly missed out on the medal bracket at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Sunday.

Mweresa finished fourth and achieved a massive Personal Best time of 44.96, the silver lining in his Commonwealth cloud.

The 2015 African Games 400m silver medallist Mweresa anchored Kenya's 4x400m to victory in their heat to storm the final in athletics at the ongoing Commonwealth Games at the Alexander Stadium.

Mweresa started off in lane six and despite having the third slowest reaction time among the eight finalists, he gradually ate up into the lead at the back straight.

However, the Kenyan did not have enough gas in the tank for a final dip as he failed to sustain a third place spot at the final curl, narrowly being edged at the line by Jonathan Jones of Barbados who clocked 44.89secs.

Zambia's Muzala Samukonga who was fourth behind Mweresa lane a strong final 50m to emerge top for gold in a new Personal Best time of 44.66secs, edging out homeboy Mathew Hudson-Smith who was second in 44.81secs.

Mweresa will now switch his attention to the 4x400m Relay which will be the final event on the last day of athletics action at the Alexader Stadium.

Zambian Muzala Samukonga won the race at 44.66 with the second place taken by Mathew Hudson Smith from England who crossed the tape at 44.81, Barbados's Jonathan Jones settled on the bronze by clocking 44.89.

Uganda's Haron Adoli came in fifth at 45.62, Anthony Cox from Jamaica was sixth at 46.17 and Australian Steven Solomon at 46.22.

Kenya's Winny Chebet will be lining up in the Women's 1500m final on the penultimate day of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Chebet will face stiff competition from Uganda's Winnie Nanyondo who won her heat in a time of 4:16.04 to reach the final and will be among the favourites for the podium places.

She clocked 4:01.98 to finish eighth at the World Athletics Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon (US) last month.
But she will fancy her chances in Birmingham where there is a lighter field on paper in absence of a couple of big names including Olympic and world champion Faith Kipyegon (Kenya).