Tuwei: Poor transition from track to road races derailing Kenya

Athletics Kenya (AK) President Jackson Tuwei has urged athletes to embrace well planned gradual transition from track to road races, if they are to make the best in their careers.

Speaking this evening at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport while receiving the boxing and athletics teams from Morocco who competed in the African Games, Tuwei regretted young athletes are chocking themselves early by rushing to the road prematurely.

“We are happy for Team Kenya especially for athletics team for making us proud once again.  I would however like to advise our athletes to get endurance first before making decisions to graduate from the track. Nowadays we are not getting medals in track races because our athletes are just rushing for road races after a very short period,” he told.

Kenya has been dominated by rivals especially in the 5,000m and 10,000m men, with most athletes of the specialties rushing to the lucrative roads.

Recently, three-time world half marathon champion Geoffrey Kamworor won the 10,000m national championship, but is already an established marathoner. Poignantly, he has opted out of the team Kenya to the IAAF World Athletics Championships set for Doha, Qatar this month.

In Morocco, several global stars opted out of the African Games in order to concentrate on the Doha showpiece.

Despite fielding a youthful team, Tuwei says young players proved their worth by bagging 10 gold medals out of the overall 11 Kenya managed from the entire disciplines.

In the 12th edition of the African Games which came to a close officially on Saturday, Kenya ranked seventh  with a total of 31 medals; 11 gold, 10 silver and 10 bronze.

Road to Doha

At the same time, Tuwei announced Athletics Kenya will select the World Championship team on September 12-13 ahead of the competition which is scheduled for Doha, Qatar in September 27 to October 6.

On his part, Sports Principal Secretary Peter Kaberia who received the contingent praised Team Kenya for their triumph in Morocco pledging more support from the government.

“We are very happy for the good job you have done in Morocco and sports being one of the serious sectors in Kenya we will not relent in our efforts to support every federation,” he said.

On Monday, national women’s volleyball team Malkia Strikers was among the first Kenya’s contingent to jet back after winning Kenya gold following 3-1 sets win against new-found opponents Cameroon.

Sourced by Gilbert Kiprotich