Kandie, Kenyan stars warm up for world record test

Kenya’s top half marathon runners had a feel of the conditions in Prague on Wednesday with an evening training session after getting a clean bill of health following mandatory Covid-19 tests.

They are among a strong team of over 30 runners invited for a special run in the Czech capital on Saturday, chasing world road running records.

Organised by athletics management company RunCzech, tomorrow’s contest has been backed by footwear giants Adidas who hope their new range of Adizero Adios Pro will be able to claw back some records from bitter rivals, Nike.

One of the top runners for Saturday is Kenya’s national cross country champion Kibiwott Kandie who started off the 2020 season well, winning the cross country title and following it up with the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon crown before Covid-19 put a halt to the season in March.

“The pandemic brought some problems, but I have to do my best for the ‘Prague Restart’ project,” he said from the Czech capital on Wednesday.

“My training was interrupted, group training stopped and I had to train alone or with just one person. In terms of the shape, I am at the same level as before the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon this February. My tempo test several weeks before that race and now are almost the same.

Women-only world record

“To me, not racing for long periods is not a big problem, as I can run competitively without many opportunities needed,” he noted.

The runners will be gunning to get close, or perhaps beat, Kenya’s Geoffrey Kamworor’s world record for the half marathon of 58 minutes and one second, and the women-only world record over the distance held by Ethiopia’s Netsanet Gudeta (1:06:11).
Kandie’s personal best time is 58:58.

Ethiopia’s Andamlak Belihu (59:10) is also in the elite men’s field for Saturday and believes he can beat the 59-minute barrier. “It felt strange to fly with all the (Covid-19) restrictions in place, but, we need to get used to it,” he said on Wednesday.

“It’s good to be back in Prague and compete. I hope to break the 59:00 barrier this weekend and to do well against strong field.

Peres Jepchirchir, Kenya’s former world half marathon record holder (1:05:06) heads a strong women’s team and is equally upbeat.

“I am happy to be back to Prague and I am in a very good shape, with the goal to run faster than 66-minutes,”she said on Wednesday.

“I hope that other athletes will co-operate and that we can try to break women’s only world record of 66:11. That will be very good for all of us and especially for the organisation (RunCzech) which made an effort to have the event during Covid19 pandemic.