Race walker Ndangiri ready for big step-up 

Africa Under-20 10,000 metres race walk bronze medallist Samuel Ndangiri wants to go one better at the global stage.

Ndangiri will line up for the men’s race walk at the World Under-20 Championships in Lima, Peru Friday from 5.25pm (Kenyan time) determined to emulate Heriston Wanyonyi who became the first Kenyan to win a race walk gold medal, at the 2021 World Under-20 Championships at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi.

“I have been doing vigorous  training with senior athletes especially Samuel Gathimba who has really helped me,” said Ndagili, appearing to have an ace up his sleeve,  before he flew out of Nairobi for the championships.

Ndangiri won the national junior trials at the Nyayo National Stadium on June 27 in a time of 43:17.19.

He owns a personal best time of 42:01.45 that is nine seconds faster than Wanyonyi’s winning time of  42:10.84 at the Nairobi world championships and will feel confident of taking on the best in the world  at this junior level.

Ndangiri confessed that he had trained very had for this championships after missing out on the qualifying mark for the 2022 Cali U-20 Championships with a time of 44:16.3, way below the required standard of 43:50.00.

This forced him to go back to the drawing board and return with harder training routines.

He said it was a painful process as he had to sacrifice a lot of time and train with his seniors to get into the best possible shape of his young career.

“It has been a long journey for me having started with a competitive personal best time of  52 minutes.”

Now he is eyeing the top under-20 race walk prize in the world.

Meanwhile, Kenyans Mathew Kosgei and Edmund Serem sailed through to the 3,000m steeplechase final after winning their respective heats on Wednesday night.

Kosgei led in his heat after two laps and never looked back to cross the finishing line in 8:24.64 ahead of Ethiopia’s Berihun Moges who clocked 8:30.92 while Algeria’s Anes Djayahia was in third in 8:39.10.

In the second heat, Serem ran brilliantly, pacing himself at the back of the pack in the early stages before unleashing a devastating surge as he told the field “see you!”, for a winning time of 8:46.56.

Ethiopia’s Hailu Ayalew was second in 8:48.14 with USA’s Wyatt Haughton third after clocking 8:59.09. In the 2022 edition, Kenya missed out on the men’s steeplechase podium positions.

The duo will be seeking to reclaim the title won by Ethiopia’s Samuel Duguna as his compatriot Samuel Firewu bagged a silver medal while Morocco’s Salaheddine Ben Yazide settled for a bronze medal.

In the 1,500m men’s race, Josphat Kipkirui won his heat in 3:44.62 to sail through to the final as Kenya’s lone representative. Compatriot Collins Kibiwott got eliminated.