Habari za Wiki - 19 January, 2021
Mneira and Wanjiku to Victory
Monica Wanjiru leading Gladys Jerono and Lilian Kasait in the women's 10km race
Charles Mneira and Monica Wanjiru were the winners of Kenya Prisons Cross Country championships. Both declared their intentions from the onset when they took an early lead for men’s and women’s races that played out similarly.
Lap by lap they covered the uneven cross country course at Kenya Prisons Training College. The women’s race was flagged off first and with not much competition Monica Wanjiru crossed the line in 33 mins 43 seconds for her first ever win. The men’s race took a similar shape to the women’s and Mneira cut the tape in 30 mins 15 seconds for his third consecutive title, making it a hat-trick for him.
Next up will be Prisons Kenya Police and Kenya Defence Force Cross country championships on the 29 January before the Kenya Cross Country championships on 13 February in Kisii.
Timothy Talks Training
Timothy Cheruiyot took part in the Kenya Prisons Cross Country championship - competing in the third leg of the mixed relays. Timothy, who is also Inspector of Prisons, was competing for Team Nairobi. The 1500m world champion says the 2kms he ran was good for his speedwork. Timothy has just recovered from a toe injury and is yet to resume full training.
We caught up with the world champion to talk more about his road to recovery. Check out the interview.
Marathoners Who Have Excelled Without a Track Career
They say athletics is about transition and the old school way of progressing. From juniors, who compete in cross country, run track for years then transition to Marathon or road racing. That is how Haile, Kipchoge, Tergat, Vivian Cheruiyot have done it. However now there is a crop of athletes who are going straight to road racing and still delivering it. They include Dennis Kimetto, Brigid Kosgei, and Peres Jepchirchir.
Road running seems to be where the fame and money is, so we imagine that more athletes will take this route in the years to come.
Asbel Kiprop Plans to Come Back
By the time of his ban for using banned substance EPO, Asbel Kiprop was the best miler in the world. So when the news came of his four year ban for doping – athletics lovers were crushed. Asbel Kiprop has always maintained his innocence and his claim that he was set up. To be fair, there were irregularities with his test, including being notified ahead of the test and the tester asking him for money.
He has been actively working as a police officer and says he will be back to athletics again because he has never retired.
Non- Kenyan news
Allyson Felix and Shelly Ann Talk Motherhood and Sexism
These girls are superbly talented. American Allyson Felix and Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce have 15 Olympic and 29 World Championship medals between them. But it hasn’t been all smooth for the two. The two shared their thoughts on motherhood, sexism and postponed Olympic Games in this BBC interview.
Athletics Leading the Way in Doping
Athletics has served 196 doping bans since 2017. 66 Olympic and world medallists have been banned since the Athletics Integrity Unit’s launch in 2017. There’s obviously a long way to go in cleaning up the sport. But it is also clear that athletics takes doping seriously. Most sports are not even in the race to clean out cheats.
6000 Athletes at Olympics Opening Ceremony
The International Olympic Committee(IOC) expects only 6,000 athletes to participate in the opening ceremony at the Tokyo Summer Games. This is more than half of initial estimates, as organisers implement measures to guard against coronavirus infections. The IOC plans to scale back the ceremony because athletes will not be allowed to arrive at the Olympic Village more than five days before they compete and must depart within two days after their event finishes.
Thankfully that should be the end of a certain type of story that seems to get reprinted every olympics.
From Us At Enda
The lilac breasted roller is the national bird of Kenya, but very few people know it’s swahili name: Kambu. We wanted to celebrate this beautiful and bold bird, so brought some of its colors to the Lapatet. The Kambu Red and Teal Lapatet is available now.
We’ve had lots of running industry people ask us when we were going to make a “women’s” color. Women can wear any color, but we assume they meant pink.
We had a lot of questions. We always make our colors available for both men and women, and don’t want to break from that. Do women actually want more pink shoes? What about men?
So we included this Kambu colorway in our survey about new Lapatet colors. We were surprised to see it was the most popular color among men and reasonably popular among women too, so we decided to go for it. So thanks to your input, here they are!
From The Enda Community
The Rainbow runners are shining brightly in Colorado USA! Check out Joey Lechuga rocking his new kicks:
“The new @endasportswear Lapatet Rainbow Runner from Kenya. This company is awesome! Check them out. Also, look at these shoes!”
Right back at you, Joey! You’re awesome. Enda fam: if you’re more into Stava than Instagram, then you can follow Joey on Strava.