It’s a golden harvest in Canada as Kenya emerge tops with seven gold medals at junior championships
Kenya beat track and field bigwigs USA and Germany to clinch an unprecedented third overall title, collecting 15 medals as the curtains came down on the week-long World Junior Athletics Championship in Moncton, Canada, on Sunday.
Jonathan Muia Ndiku, Caleb Mwangangi, David Mutinda, Dennis Masai, David Bett, Purity Cherotich and Mercy Cherono won gold. Albert Yator, Cherono Koech, Mercy Cherono and John Kipkoech won silver while Nancy Chepkwemoi, Alice Aprot, Lucia Kamene and Paul Lonyangata settled for bronze.
David Mutinda powered past Americans Casimir Loxsom and Robby Andrews for a 800m victory in a personal best time of 1:46.41.
Loxsom and Andrews, who seemed to be racing for the gold until Mutinda’s late intervention, clocked 1:46.57, a personal best for the former, and 1:47.00 as they saw their hopes die in the last 50 metres.
Not surprisingly Mutinda victory was the seventh for Kenya and first since Alex Kipchirchir in 2002.
Not a very hard race
“It was not a very hard race,” said Mutinda, despite his opponents running out of steam in the final 100m. “When we started racing my body showed me I could win. When there was 110m left my body woke up and I knew I could win the race.”
Pre-race favourite Jonathan Ndiku became the first man to win back-to-back 3,000m steeplechase titles in the championships. His 12th successive victory, only the inaugural title in 1986 having escaped the Kenyan’s stranglehold, came in 8:23.48.
Ndiku’s team mate Albert Yator (8:33.55 PB) and Ugandan Jacob Araptany (98:37.02).
Defending champion Ndiku went into the championships with a world leading 8:19.25, set at high altitude in Nairobi during the Senior Africa Athletics trials at the end of June.
His opening pace pulled the Japanese-based 19-year-old into a 12m lead after the first complete lap of the stadium although Yator, Araptany and Ethiopia’s Desta Alemu got back on level terms after a further 300m.
‘This is a Kenyan race’
But his easy free running style, although his hurdling technique needs plenty of improvement, clearly suggested there was only ever going to be one winner.
Ndiku explaining why he slowed after his first lap break, said: “I wanted my team mate to come in front of me because I needed some help.”
He added after the country’s huge success at all levels of athletics championships: “This race is our culture. It’s a Kenyan race.”
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