OLYMPICS/ Athletes
In steeplechase, others left chasing Kenyans
By Bryan Virasami (China Daily/THE OLYMPIAN)
Updated: 2007-09-07 14:00
Kenyan athletes have won most of their Olympic medals in track and field since Wilson Kiprugut's 800m bronze in 1964. Four years later, the east African nation started a tradition that its skilled athletes are likely to keep alive during the Beijing Games next summer: triumphing at the men's steeplechase.
New world champion Brimin Kipruto leads Kenya's 1-2-3 finish in the 3000m steeplechase at the Athletics World Championships in Osaka on August 28. Teammates Ezekiel Kemboi and Richard Mateelong follow. [AP] |
In Athens 2004 and in the 1992 Barcelona Games, Kenyans swept all three medals in the steeplechase. And if it's any indication of things to come in Beijing, they recently repeated the feat at the worlds in Osaka.
Gold winner Brimin Kipruto led his fellow countrymen, Ezekiel Kemboi and Richard Matelong, to win the silver and bronze respectively.
That was the first medal sweep of the World Championships since 1997 and Kemboi, who won the gold in Athens, exhibited some confidence when asked about next summer.
"We will do a lot of training and you will see in Beijing that again we are going to take positions 1-2-3," Kemboi told reporters in Osaka. "We planned well and did all we expected."
Kemboi said in Osaka that the steeplechase is the "most, most, most difficult race in the world."
The steeplechase event, usually 3,000m long, is a grueling test of athletes' abilities. They are required to overcome many obstacles as well as seven water jumps throughout the course.
Kipruto, 22, whose parents are farmers, is the third of 10 children. He began running in primary school, according to the International Association of Athletics Federations, and was met with success right away. After he won numerous events around the world, he was selected for Athens.
In Athens, Kipruto got the silver in the steeplechase while his teammates Kemboi got gold and Paul Kipsiele Koech got the bronze for the clean sweep. The steeplechase isn't the only event in which Kenyans dominate, however.
In Athens, Kenya also won four other medals in athletics, including the men's 1,500m and 5,000m as well as women's 5,000m.
Kenya's only other winning sport at the Games has been boxing, at which it picked up seven medals including one weltweight gold from 1968-1988 but nothing since.
During the past three Summer Olympics - in Atlanta, Sydney and Athens - Kenyan athletes had 22 medals including four gold.
Female athletes from the country have made their mark in athletics also. One of the biggest newsmakers in Osaka was marathon winner Catherine Ndereba, who is considered the world's "most consistently successful woman marathon runner." She edged China's Zhou Chunxiu by 8/100 of a second to win in Japan.
In addition to winning a silver medal in Athens during the marathon, Nderena was the first African woman to be crowned world champ in 2003. She followed this with a silver in 2005 and has won the Boston Marathon four times.
It may be too early to predict which Kenyan athletes will make it to Beijing, but they're expected to walk away with a handful of medals whoever shows up.
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