Kenyan trio storms into steeplechase final, mixed relay team flops
India's Avinash Mukund Sable, Ethiopia's Getnet Wale, Kenya's Simon Kiprop Koech, and other athletes compete in the Men's 3000m steeplechase heats during the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest on August 19, 2023.
What you need to know:
- Kenya’s 4x400m mixed relay team failed to qualify for the final after the team of Zablon Ekwam, Milicent Ndoro, Wyclife Kinyamal and Mercy Oketch finished seventh in 3:15.47 in the first heat won by the USA in a world lead time of 3:10.41.
Commonwealth Games champion Abraham Kibiwott and 2021 world under-20 bronze medallist Simon Koech and Leonard Bett qualified to the men’s 3,000m steeplechase final at the World Athletics Championships that got underway Saturday in Budapest, Hungary.
Koech finished third in the first heat in 8:20.29 as Ethiopian Getnet Wale won in 8:19.99 while Bett clocked 8:16.74 for third in the third heat won by 3,000m steeplechase world record holder Lamecha Girma from Ethiopia in 8:15.89.
Canada's Jean-Simon Desgagnes reacts while competing with Ethiopia's Getnet Wale, Kenya's Simon Kiprop Koech, and other athletes in the Men's 3000m steeplechase heats during the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest on August 19, 2023.
Kibiwott clocked 8:24.31 for fourth place in the second heat to qualify alongside Olympic and world champion Soufiane El Bakkali from Morocco, who settled second in 8:23.66 behind America Kenneth Rooks, who won in 8:23.66.
After finishing fourth at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, Africa champion Samuel Gathimba settled ninth in the men’s 20km race walk event that was delayed for almost two hours because of thunderstorms and lightning.
Gathimba clocked season’s best 1:18:34 in a race where Alvaro Martin of Spain won gold in a world-leading time of 1:17:32. Martin was just 11 seconds off Jefferson Perez’s championship record, which was also a world record at the time in 2003.
Despite failing to make the podium, Gathimba was able to strike the 2024 Paris Olympic Games qualifying standards.
Barring a calamity, Gathimba will be make his second appearance at the Olympic Games, having made his debut at the 2016 Rio Summer Games where he failed to finish.
He failed to make the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. He met the qualifying standards for the Games during the Kenyan trials, but there was no foreign judge during the championship as per the Word Athletics rules.
Sweden’s Perseus Karlström clinched the silver with a national record time of 1:17:39 as Brazil’s Caio Bonfim captured the bronze, in a national record time of 1:17:47.
Brazil's Caio Bonfim and Sweden's Perseus Karlstrom competes in the men's 20km race walk final during the World Athletics Championships in Budapest on August 19, 2023.
Reigning champion, Toshikazu Yamanishi of Japan, was only 24th.
Kenya’s 4x400m mixed relay team failed to qualify for the final after the team of Zablon Ekwam, Milicent Ndoro, Wyclife Kinyamal and Mercy Oketch finished seventh in 3:15.47 in the first heat won by the USA in a world lead time of 3:10.41.
While it’s back to the drawing board for Athletics Kenya in the 4x400m mixed relay after the team missed out on qualifying for Paris Summer Games.
The 4x400m mixed relay team only needed to reach the final to make it to Paris Olympics.
They now must reach the final at the World Athletics Relays Championships scheduled for May 4-5, next year in Nassau, Bahamas if they hope to make it to Paris.
Alternatively, AK need to organise a championships internally by inviting two foreign teams or take the team outside the country to strike a good time that will place them in within the world ranking qualifying positions.
