All the best, Team Kenya
The Easter weekend ushers in a busy sporting period in different disciplines.
This Easter holiday has coincided with the World Rally Championship Safari Rally in Naivasha and Nairobi, and the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
The Safari Rally, which returned to the World Rally Championship in 2021 after 19 years, started on Thursday at Kenyatta International Convention Centre, and will conclude tomorrow in Naivasha. Twenty-nine crews, 13 of them Kenyan, are competing in the Kenyan round of the global series.
At the same time, Team Kenya’s 28 athletes will be competing in the World Athletics Cross Country Championships today.
Despite delays in visa processing, which that locked three junior athletes out of the team, and delayed travel plans, we believe that the team, which has been training under coaches led by Julius Kirwa, will bring glory and honour to the country.
In last year’s edition of the championship held in Bathurst, Australia, Kenya collected 10 medals; six gold, two silver and two bronze to top the medal standings.
Beatrice Chebet, who heads the team to Belgrade, won an eighth successive gold medal in the senior women’s 10km race, while Ishmael Kipkurui won the men's under-20 title for Kenya for the first time since 2011 as well as the team title.
In Bathurst, Kenya also lost the women’s under-20 individual and team titles to Ethiopia, but recaptured the mixed relay title it had lost to Ethiopia in 2019.
More than half of Team Kenya is composed of a new generation of athletes, and victory for them will be a good stepping stone to the Paris Olympic Games scheduled for July 26 to August 11.
We take this opportunity to wish Kenyan athletics team the best of luck in Belgrade.
We also hope the Safari Rally will again entrench Kenya’s position as successful hosts of the world’s toughest motorsport event.
