Kenya: Jepkosgei Launches 800m Season At Kisii Meet

Nairobi Star (Nairobi)

13 April 2011

Former 800m world champion is expected to launch her World Championships and All Africa Games campaign during the third edition of the Athletics Kenya/National Bank of Kenya track and field meeting set for Kisii this weekend. “I want to start my preparations early enough in order to be in shape ahead of the two major assignments,” said Jepkosgei. “I will be going for nothing short of a win in both races as I look forward to recapturing the world title, which lost in 2009.” The All Africa Games will be held in Maputo, Mozambique on September 3-18 September while the world championships will be held in Daegu, South Korea on August 27-September 4 this year.

Jepkosgei lost the title to South Africa’s Caster Semenya during the World championships held in Berlin two years ago. The Kisii event will take place on Friday and Saturday and has attracted the who is who in the middle distance races.

Also to headline the star-studded field will be Olympic 1,500m champion Asbel Kiprop, former world 800m champion Alfred Kirwa and Olympic silver medallist Richard Mateelong.

Kiprop will also be seeking a win in Kisii after falling to third place in the second leg of the circuit held in Narok two weeks ago. The first edition was held in Kisumu on March 25-26. AK public relations officer Peter Angwenyi said everything is place ahead of the meet and more than 1, 000 runners are expected, owing to the central position of the venue, Gusii Stadium. “Narok attracted about 700 runners but Kisii being a more favourable venue for most of these top athletes, we are expecting most of them to turn up,” said Angwenyi.

He observed that the event is a good place for runners to launch their campaigns or test their levels of fitness for the forthcoming international events. “The event is quickly gaining momentum and I would like to urge athletes who wish to represent the country in the forthcoming events to use it as their platform since the level of competition experienced is very high.”

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