by Justin Lagat
Hellen Obiri, Monaco DL 2020, photo by Etienne Fiacre
In his weekly piece, Justin Lagat helps us appreciate the challenges via the pandemic that Kenyan Athletics is responding to with their meet protocals.
For easier observation, control, and maintenance of the COVID 19 guidelines, all the Athletics Kenya track and field meetings have had to be moved to Nairobi in order to benefit from the well-equipped stadiums. The first meeting happened in the Nyayo National stadium last month while the second one was just concluded at the Kasarani Stadium.
Hellen Obiri was one of the top stars who featured on the final day of the second Athletics Kenya meeting after winning the women’s 10,000m race in an impressive time of 31:24.7, at altitude. Eva Cherono who finished 2nd in 31:29.6 made the race quite interesting as the two exchanged the lead in the last stages of the race before Obiri pulled away with two laps to go. Vicoty Chepng’eno finished 3rd in 31:42.9.
A lot of focus will be on Obiri in the upcoming competitions given her intention to compete in both the 5,000m and the 10,000m races at the Tokyo Olympic Games that are expected to take place in July and August.
The other big name of the day, Winny Chebet finished 2nd in the women’s 1500m race behind Josphine Chelagat who won it in 4:10.6 and ahead of Loice Chemnung.
The first day of the meeting saw a huge number of runners register for the men’s 10,000m and three finals had to be conducted. Peter Ndwiga, Emmanuel Kemboi and Alexander Mutiso won their respective heats.
