Taki set to run two races in Europe ahead of continental event
Former world 1,500m champion in the Under 20 category Kumari Taki has two crucial races in Europe before battling for silverware at the Africa Senior Athletics Championships programmed from June 8 to 12 at Cote d’Or National Sports Complex, Reduit, Mauritius.
He will be in action at the Meeting International de Montreuil, a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting on Thursday before winding up the European Tour at the FBK Games, part of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series, in Hengelo Netherlands on Sunday.
Taki who is in the Kenyan team for the continental extravaganza after finishing second during the Athletics Kenya (AK) National Championship in April left the country on Monday evening for France full of expectations having overcome an injury that troubled him for the better part of last year.
“I don’t like to look back to the setbacks I had, but last year was not the best for me. I missed out the Olympics trials after I sustained an injury a month before. It was quite a setback. Now I’m in good shape and riding on great form,” Taki told People Sport.
Taki who was part of Team Kenya at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar says he is keen to make back-to-back appearances at the senior level when the event goes to United States of America for the first time.
“First things first, I want to have a good outing in Mauritius, then I can focus fully on the national trials later in the month,” said Taki who has been training at the Nyayo Stadium before leaving for France.
Meanwhile, Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi won the 800m at Ostrava in 1:44.15, the second fastest time this season at the Golden Spike athletics meet in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava on Tuesday night.
The victory came less than a month after the Kip Keino Classic win, where he claimed his second World Athletics Continental Tour Gold victory.
The 17-year-old Wanyonyi edged out Algeria’s Slimane Moula, who also clocked a personal best of 1:44.19 as Max Burgin of United Kingdom came third in a season’s best of 1:44.54.
In the second 800m final, former World Indoor winner Collins Kipruto emerged victorious after clocking 1:44.58.
-Xinhua
