Kenya’s World Athletics Championships team has already surpassed expectations midway through the competition, bagging a sixth gold medal and eleventh overall with four days to go at the time of writing.
The East Africans’ triumphs in the middle to long distance track events are not totally unexpected, but a gold medal in a sprint, albeit the 400m long sprint over hurdles, is new territory for the region and a javelin gold is a novelty for sub-Saharan Africa.
Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkemoi took the women’s 3000m Steeplechase, catching and passing a fading Habiba Ghribi of Tunisia and Gesa Krause of Germany in a time of 9m 19.11s.
Ezekiel Kemboi had already won the men’s equivalent, leading home compatriots Consensius and Brimin Kipruto in 8m 11.28s for a predictable clean sweep of medals.
Vivian Cheruiyot won a hard-fought women’s 10,000m, pipping Ethiopian Gelete Burka by less than half a second. Emily Infield of the United States capitalised on her teammate Molly Huddle’s decision to celebrate prematurely to steal the Bronze.
A back to form David Rudisha secured the 800m world title in a final that had to do without the Olympic Champion’s main rival this year – Botswana’s Nijel Amos surprisingly went out in the semi-final, falling victim to a slow race. Rudisha won the final easing down in 1m 45.84s, beating Poland’s Adam Kszczot and Amel Tuka of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Nobody can claim any of the foregoing has caused many shockwaves; distances of 800m and above have borne fruit for East African nations for years. The big shock has been Kenya’s ‘arrival’ in the punishing 400m Hurdles, which Nicholas Bett won in 47.79s, the fastest time in the world this year and a personal best by half a second. Bett beat Russia’s Dennis Kudryavtsev, who took Silver fifteen hundredths of a second ahead of Jeffery Gibson of the Bahamas.
Less of a surprise, but nonetheless notable is Julius Yego becoming the first ever African World Javelin Champion on Wednesday, throwing a new Commonwealth record and the fourth longest distance under current regulations (all measurements over 90m were expunged from the record books when javelin design was regulated in 1991 to reduce distances amid safety concerns).
Yego, dubbed ‘The YouTube Man’ because he reportedly taught himself to throw by watching the video sharing website, launched the Javelin 92.72 metres – a personal best only bettered by World Record holder Jan Železný of the Czech Republic.
The burly police officer also surpassed Great Britain’s Steve Backley’s Commonwealth best of 91.46 metres with his winning third round throw, which he launched with such effort that he ended up face down on the ground.
In Yego’s considerable wake was Egyptian Ihab El-Sayed and the representative from the traditionally strong Finland, Tero Pitkämäki; but neither competitor managed to get over the 90m line.
Supplementing the minor medals gained in the men’s steeplechase, Kenyans also took Silver and Bronze behind Great Britain’s Mo Farah in the Men’s 10,000m with Geoffrey Kamworor leading home Paul Tanui.
In the Women’s 1500, Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba eased to the Championships’ most predictable Gold, but plucky Faith Kipyegon did Kenya proud and can have nothing to reproach herself about given the Ethiopian’s pre-eminence in the event this year.
On a less upbeat note, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has announced that two Kenyan runners have been suspended after testing positive for doping at Beijing.
Koki Manunga, 21, and Joyce Zakary, 29, have accepted provisional bans after “targeted tests” by the governing body of world athletics. The pair, who are both 400m runners, were tested at their team hotel on 20 and 21 August.
Zakary set a national record of 50.71 in heat three of the 400m on Monday, but did not line up for her scheduled semi-final on Tuesday.
