Kenyan athletes can conquer in Oregon
As a renowned world athletics powerhouse, Kenya will be in the spotlight again during the World Athletics Championships, which get underway in Oregon, United States, tomorrow.
We hope that Athletics Kenya has selected the best talent for the championships for the country to continue ruling the roost and emerge among best performers, as has been the tradition.
But while hoping that Kenyan athletes will continue to fly the country’s flag higher, there is no gainsaying the fact that there is need for them to be ambitious and look beyond Africa’s stardom. The world is theirs to conquer.
For a long time, as much as Kenya has been a dominant force in African athletics, it has remained in the shadows of countries such as the US, Great Britain, Jamaica and China whenever it comes to global events. This cannot be blamed on lack of talent. There is no shortage of that. It is more a question of management of the team and self-belief among individual competitors. Among the countries calling the shots in such events have in their ranks Kenyan-born competitors who changed citizenship in search of better fortunes. And they continue to shine.
In recent years, some Kenyan athletes have been linked to the use of banned substances, which goes against the rules and regulations set by the World Anti-Doping Agencies (WADA). This is a temptation that our athletes should avoid at all costs for their own benefit, now and in future. Kenyans expect their athletes to run clean and prove to the world that the country’s talent is nurtured and is not attributable to the use of banned substances.
During the 2019 edition of the World Athletics event in Doha, Qatar, Kenya clinched 11 medals: Five gold, two silver and four bronze. The country ranked third behind the US and Jamaica in that order. This was one of the best performances by Team Kenya in a global showcase although there was a general feeling that better performance could have been achieved. Ours is to cheer on the Kenyan team and encourage them to do even better. If they put their minds and hearts to the challenge, they can emerge top of the medals table, and Kenyans are rooting for them.
Kenyan athletes can derive inspiration from a sport like lawn tennis, in which our very own Angela Okutoyi made a major breakthrough at the Wimbledon Championships by emerging triumphant in a doubles competition.
