Kenya’s Wanjiru raring to go in Tokyo Marathon

Rosemary Wanjiru, who finished second in last year’s Berlin Marathon, is confident of better results at the Tokyo Marathon on Sunday.

“Kombawa,” (hallo) she greets us as Nation Sport caught up with her at home in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County.

In Berlin, Wanjiru ran the second fastest debut in women's marathon when she clocked two hours and 18 minutes to finish second behind Ethiopia's Tigist Asefa.

“Training has been good. I’m glad I don’t have an injury. My target is to be on the podium,” she said.

Wanjiru is excited about competing in her second major marathon in a town she has called home since 2010. The athlete works for Starts Corporation, a Japan-based Real Estate Company.

 “It feels good running in a place where I have been staying and training and that will give me more reasons to work hard in the race,” she said.

She prefers training in Iten, something she said that pushes her to the limit because of running with a group of athletes and they have to finish the programme though Japan has good training facilities.

Wanjiru has represented Kenya in Several occasions, first in 2015 when she bagged bronze in the 5000m race at the All African Games in Brazzaville Congo, in 2019 she finished 4th in the 10,000m race at the Doha World Championships. Now she hopes to secure Team Kenya's ticket in this year's Budapest World Championships.

She is also using the race as part of preparations for the World Championships that shall be held in Budapest, Hungary in August where she is eyeing a slot in the marathon team which is normally selected early.

“My target is to run well and I hope the federation (Athletics Kenya) will be able to select me to represent Kenya in the marathon team for the World Championships because my joy is to always compete for my country,” she said.

Titus Kipruto and Bernard Koech are the only Kenyans in the men's category.

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