On to your marks, get set, go! It’s Kenya against the world in Budapest

In Budapest, Hungary

For the next nine days, Team Kenya captain Emily Ngii will lead the country’s squad of 52 athletes in a contest of speed, tact, and endurance against opponents from the rest of the world as they compete for honours in the 19th edition of the World Athletics Championships here.

This year, the senior track and field championships will see a total of 2,000 athletes from around 200 teams compete for 49 titles in nine days.

The biennial championship enters the 19th edition this year since the inaugural edition held in Helsinki in 1983. This year’s championship will be held at the brand new 30,000-seater National Athletics Centre located on the eastern bank of the Danube River on the south side of Budapest.

The championship is being held back-to-back this year because the Covid-19 pandemic forced organisers to push the 2021 edition in Oregon, USA to last year.

Reigning Olympics and world champions, led by multiple world and Olympics champion Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica, 5,000 metres and 1,500m world record holder Faith Chepng’etich Kipyegon of Kenya, and 100m champion Fred Kerley of USA are here to add more titles to their names.

Fraser-Pryce is seeking a sixth 100m individual title, Kerley is out to become the second man to retain the 100m title after Usain Bolt, and Kipyegon is eyeing a historic third 1,500m world title.

Africa 20 kilometres race walk champion Ngii leads Team Kenya athletes on a mission here to reclaim medals the country has lost to other countries in recent years, and to retain men’s 800 metres race, and women’s 1,500m titles which the country won last year in Oregon.

World champions Emmanuel Korir (men’s 800m) and Kipyegon (women’s 1,500m) will be seeking to retain the titles they won in Oregon last year, while Jacob Krop (men’s 5,000m), Beatrice Chebet (women’s 5,000m), will be out to upgrade their silver medals to gold.

Commonwealth Games 800m champion Mary Moraa will be out to upgrade the bronze medal she won in 800m last year in Oregon to gold in Budapest.

The 2022 World Championships men’s 10,000m silver medalist Stanley Mburu, 10,000m silver medalist Hellen Obiri, 10,000m bronze medalist Margaret Kipkemboi, women’s marathon silver medalist Judith Korir, and men’s 3,000m steeplechase bronze medallist Conseslus Kipruto, all of whom represented Kenya last year in Oregon, are missing from this year’s championship.

Mburu (injury), Kipkemboi, Korir and Kipruto did not make it past the unforgiving Kenyan trials, while Obiri has moved on to road running.

The team will be out to improve on the total tally of 10 medals (two gold, five silver and three bronze) it won last year in Oregon, where Kenya finished fourth overall behind leaders USA (33 medals), Ethiopia (10), and Jamaica (10).

Only two Kenyan athletes will compete in more than one specialty in Budapest. They are world and Olympics 1,500m champion Kipyegon who will field in women’s 1,500m and 5,000m races, and Nicolas Kemeli who will compete in men’s 5,000m and 10,000m races.

Kenya will also be seeking to wrestle back men and women’s 3,000m steeplechase title, women’s 5,000m and 10,000m titles, as well as marathon titles from opponents here in Budapest.

In last year’s edition, Kenya lost men’s and women’s 3,000m steeplechase titles, women’s marathon title, and women’s 5,000m titles which the country won in 2019.

Kenya lost the women’s 3,000m steeplechase title which world record holder Beatrice Chepkoech had won in the 2019 edition in Qatar to Kenyan-born Norah Jeruto of Kazakhstan, while the men’s title which Conseslus Kipruto won in Qatar in 2019 went to Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco.

Kenya also lost the women’s 5,000m title which Hellen Obiri had won in 2019 to Guday Tsegay of Ethiopia, and lost the women’s marathon title which Ruth Chepng’etich had won in 2019 to Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia.

Team Kenya will also be fighting end long drought of medals in men’s 5,000m and 10,000m races in Budapest, as well as to finish at the top of the medal standings as it did in 2015.

In the 2015 World Athletics Championships held in Beijing, Kenya won seven gold medals, six silver and three bronze to finish top of the world with 16 medals ahead of Jamaica and USA.

Captain Ngii believes Kenya has a strong team capable of returning to the top of the medal standings.

“We have a good team capable of reclaiming our position at the top of the medals table, just like in 2015 when we led the whole world. We ask Kenyans to pray for us, and to support us as we compete in Budapest,” Ngii said on Thursday when the team received the national flag from Youth Affairs, Sports and Arts Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba in Nairobi.