Buoyant ‘Team Kenya’ ready for Denmark

What you need to know:

  • He said the team had different talents and they had used the knowledge to build each other.
  • Fast rising Richard Kimunyang, who represented Kenya at the last world championships in Uganda, said he had learnt a lot since he graduated to seniors last year and was hoping to improve from the fourth finish at the qualifiers.

Kenya’s team to Saturday’s IAAF World Cross Country Championships departs Wednesday night for the competition venue in Aarhus, Denmark, confident of sweeping all the main medals before them for the umpteenth time.

Team Kenya officials and athletes have expressed confidence that they would retaining the global cross country title, and appealed to Kenyans to rally behind them during the 43rd IAAF Cross Country Championship in the city of Aarhus.

Head coach David Letting and team captain Geoffrey Kamworor, who is also the defending senior men’s title holder, along with other athletes said they had given their best during the close to one month’s training at St Mark’s Teachers’ Training College in Embu county.

All they need now is the support from Kenyans to conquer the world.

“We are appealing to Kenyans to rally behind us and pray for the national team. We are hoping for a good result. The team is ready and we thank God since the training has been good,” said Letting.

Kamworor said morale among the star-studded team was high and they had gelled well during the one-month camp and would compete as a cohesive team. “As we leave on Wednesday (today), we ask Kenyans to pray for us since we have done all what is humanly possible and what remains is just going there and compete.

“As the defending champion, I am proud of this team since the training was good and we had great teamwork. The morale is high and it is my hope to defend the title. We are going there as the defending champions and hope to repeat what we achieved in Kampala,” said Kamworor.

He said the team had different talents and they had used the knowledge to build each other.

Fast rising Richard Kimunyang, who represented Kenya at the last world championships in Uganda, said he had learnt a lot since he graduated to seniors last year and was hoping to improve from the fourth finish at the qualifiers.