How AK plans to win elusive 10,000 metres Olympic gold

Since 1968 when Kenya won a gold medal in the men’s 10,000 metres at the Mexico Olympics Games through Naftali Temu, the best performance over the distance has been silver.

In the women’s category, Kenya has never won an Olympic gold with two silver medals and a bronze the best performances at the Games.

The bizarre statistics, given Kenya’s distance running talent, have led Athletics Kenya (AK) to working on a programme they hope will break the jinx at this year’s Tokyo Olympics that will run from July 23 to August 8.

AK President Jack Tuwei says the federation will identify medal probables and put them in camp as part of the preparations for Tokyo.

He said that the athletes who will be selected must undergo the mandatory tests a requirement by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) as one way of avoiding the 2019 scenario where athletes who had been selected to compete in the 5,000m were dropped ahead of the World Championships in Doha, Qatar.

“We are working on a plan with Anti-Doping Agency in Kenya (Adak) where we want to identify athletes who will be able to compete in the Olympics Games because competition keeps changing and we cannot rely on those athletes who have always represented the country.

“We shall select the probable and send them into the camp where they will start vigorous training ahead of the National Trials where the best will be selected. The athletes must undergo various testing by Adak which is a requirement by the AIU,” said Tuwei.

Tuwei also noted that AK was focusing of warding off the middle distance challenge from Uganda and Ethiopia especially.