From running to mentorship
Former world 800m champion Janeth Jepkosgei is encouraging upcoming athletes to balance studies and their running careers.
The ex-athlete commonly known as ‘Eldoret Express’ insists that while athletics is a means to an end, it should not be misconstrued as an end to everything.
That is the culture she is trying to inculcate in younger athletes at her Kapchemoiywo Training Camp in Nandi County.
She is targeting junior athletes from different primary and secondary schools not only in the area but also neighbouring counties as well.
Jepkosgei who won her maiden gold medal at the world championships in 2007 in Osaka, Japan, says she has started a programme dubbed ‘All for Learning’, an academy that is aimed at changing the next generation of athletes.
“Right now I am coaching young athletes, encouraging them to be good people in future,” said Jepkosgei who announced her entry at the global scene in 2002 when she won gold at the World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica.
The former world champion says Kenya has to change the whole concept of athletics which for so long has been associated with illiteracy.
“We want to have Kenyan athletes as doctors, accountants, lawyers and all other professions.
It has been done elsewhere, so I believe if we allow the juniors to change their mindsets then we are on the right track,” said the 2008 Olympic Games silver medalist.
Runners are currently training from Kapchemoiywo Girls Secondary School and she plans to set up her own facility soon.
The camp was selected by Athletics Kenya (AK) as one of its 14 countrywide camps for the rescheduled World Athletics Under-20 Championships which will be held in August in Nairobi.
“We are privileged to be one of the camps selected to train athletes for the global events. I like the progress we are having here.
I am sure some of our athletes will win medals for Kenya and make a name for themselves in their career.”
Jepkosgei has challenged AK and World Athletics to factor in youth development in their vision 2030 project worldwide.
“I am happy we are having this global conversation now which is aimed at shaping the future of the sport.
I don’t think we can talk about the future without mentioning the upcoming athletes.
We have an obligation of nurturing the young athletes starting from the grassroots where we can see them growing therefore making it easier to manage them.
Now we shall be able to identify each child according to their strong points.”
Meanwhile, AK Youth Committee chairman Barnaba Korir has lauded the former world Champion for starting the programme tailored towards character development and integrity, saying athletes need to get the right information early.
“We started this programme last year when we realised the need to instill character development in our young athletes.There is a need to have morally upright world champions.
This is an initiative we want to carry on in all the camps we started across the country so that we can give the athletes finishing school enough information for their betterment as they move to the outside world,” said Korir.
