Kipruto gears up to defend title at Eugene contest
World 3,000m steeplechase champion Conseslus Kipruto’s main goal for the season is to defend his crown during the 18th edition of the World Athletics Championships which is scheduled for Eugene, Oregon in the United States from July 15 to 24.
The 2016 Rio Olympics champion missed the last season and even dropped out of the race during the national trials in Nairobi last year as Team Kenya for Tokyo Games was being selected.
Kipruto said he was saddened that he failed to defend his Olympic crown because Kenya lost the Olympic steeplechase title and is ready to reclaim lost glory. During the period of absence from competition, he admitted to having been struggling psychologically.
“I have been training well after my lower back injury healed and my target is to be in shape to defend my title in July,” said Kipruto who in 2019 narrowly beat Ethiopian Lamecha Girma and Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali in Doha to win the world title.
During his absence from competition, El Bakkali bagged the Olympics title in the same distance and also won the second edition of the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi last September.
“It was very bitter to watch all that at home,” Kipruto said.
“Knowing you should be doing something to prevent a situation is tough to take,” he added.
Kipruto took part in the Athletics Kenya Track and Field Championships at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani a race he was using to prepare for the third edition of the Kip Keino Classic this Saturday.
