Kenyan-born Turk Can wins 10,000m in Islamic Games
Kenyan-born Turkish athlete Yasemin Can during the interview at the Kapsait Nike Athletics Training Camp in Elgeyo Marakwet County on January 20, 2021. She is preparing to form Turkey’s Tokyo Olympics team.
What you need to know:
- The Islamic Solidarity Games feature athletics, swimming, cycling, fencing, judo, gymnastics, volleyball, archery, among others.
Kenyan-born Turkish athlete Yasemin Can stormed into victory in the 10,000m race at the delayed 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games in Konya, Turkey.
The Games, organised by the Organisation of Islamic Corporation, started on August 9 and will end on August 18.
They were postponed from last year because they were coinciding with the 2020 Olympic Games.
Yasemin (born Vivian Jemutai), trained at Kapsait Athletics Training Camp and Iten in Elgeyo Marakwet for the championships, timed 32min, 34.33sec to win ahead of Bahrain’s Bontu Rebitu (32:59.19) and Kenyan-born Bahraini Ruth Chebet (33:03.13).
The Kenyan-born Turk has had a good run in her career. In her first appearance at the Olympics Games in 2016, she finished seventh in the 10,000m race in a time of 30:26:41.
Last year, she finished third in Ostrava Meeting in the 5,000m race after timing 14:40:70. This year, she finished seventh at the 2020 World Half Marathon Championships in a Turkish national record of 1:06:20.
She finished eighth in women’s 5,000m race at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The 25-year-old changed citizenship to Turk in 2016.
In men’s 5,000m race, Another Kenyan-born Turk, Aras Kaya (Amos Kibitok) timed 13:56.90 to finish fourth in a race won by Bahrain’s Birhanu Balew (13:51.64), followed by Morocco’s Mohamed Fares (13:54.02) and third-placed Abel Chebet of Uganda (13:54.930.
The Islamic Solidarity Games feature athletics, swimming, cycling, fencing, judo, gymnastics, volleyball, archery, among others.
