by John Kwoba
NAIROBI, Kenyan trio of Geoffrey Kamworor, Bedan Karoki and Paul Tanui have thrown down the gauntlet in hunt for the gold medal in the men’ s 10,000m race at the World Championships in Beijing from August 22-30.
The trio will carry the country flag at the championships after they won during the Kenyan trials to select the team to Beijing in Nairobi on Saturday.
But while the Kenyan athletes’ quest for the ticket to Beijing was as usual bloodied with all the three emerging with spiked and bruised sheens during the national trials, the need to end Kenya’ s wait for gold in the distance in China will be even tougher.
“Today the important thing was to win and make the team. The time was not crucial. Now the real work begins as we go on to face Britain’ s Mo Farah for the second time this season,” Kamworor, the World Cross Country champion, told Xinhua.
Kenya’ s hunt for gold in senior men’ s at the world cross country was achieved in Nanjing, China in March and the duo of Kamworor and Karoki are optimistic that they will also be second time lucky on their return to the country in Beijing.
“I expect better performance in Beijing,” said the world bronze medalist in Moscow 2013. “It will be hard to tame Farah, but with good preparations, everything is possible. For now I will immerse myself in training and hope to emerge with great reputation at the World Championships.”
For Karoki, who was second at the World Cross Country Championships, he hopes his return to China will be capped with another title and believes he has the stamina to bring down Farah’ s reign.
“Farah will be a strong challenger and so will be Ethiopians. So it is important to maintain my focus and do what is required. I raced against Farah in Lausanne, Switzerland and he beat me. But more importantly, I was just coming from a hamstring injury and wanted to test it,” Karoki said.
“I believed I passed that test, and now it’s time I put aside my fears and take on them head on in Beijing,” he added.
The trio were always going to win after pulling away from their colleagues after the 5,000m mark as Karoki took charge of the race.
In the end, Kamworor won in 27:11.89, which was within the IAAF set qualifying time of 27:45.00. Karoki, settled for second spot in 27:15.33 while Tanui took the third slot in 27:18.45.
Source: Xinhua
