Top guns for Isaiah Kiplagat memorial meeting

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

The 10th Isaiah Kiplagat Memorial cross-country meeting will be held at Ndalat Gaa Girls High School in Nandi County on Saturday next week.

The championships, which was renamed Isaiah Kiplagat in 2016 in honour of race founder, the former Athletics Kenya (AK) President, the late Isaiah Kiplagat, received sponsorship of Sh2 million from Safaricom.

Eliud Kipchoge, the Ndalat Gaa cross-country brand ambassador, said he was delighted with the ambassadorial role he picked up in 2017.

“I am happy to be the ambassador of the meeting. I intend to inspire young athletes. This is a community race where all members of the different age groups starting from six years old compete,” he said.

Kipchoge, who set a new world marathon record of 2:01.39 at the Berlin Marathon, praised the late Kiplagat for his great leadership.

“The cross-country championships is important for me because I want to play a role in the growth of upcoming athletes by inspiring them. I had a good relationship with Isaiah Kiplagat and he was a great man who possessed good leadership skills,” said Kipchoge.

The championship will feature 12 categories with the highlight set to be the senior men’s signature race as well as women’s 8km where the winners will pocket Sh40,000.

Winners in junior men’s and women’s 6km races will receive Sh40,000 while Sh15,000 is up for grabs in the 500m race for children between 4-7 years, 1km category for 7-10 years and 6km race for secondary School students.

Noah Kipkorir (men’s 10km race), Ronex Kipruto (8km), Sandra Cherono (8km) and Africa cross country champion Mirriam Cherop (6km) are the defending champions.