Kenya To Retain Original Olympic Marathon Team For Tokyo

Umer Jamshaid Published February 25, 2021 | 06:10 PM

Nairobi, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Feb, 2021 ) :Kenya are to retain the marathon team named last year for the rescheduled 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, officials said on Thursday.

The team spearheaded by the men's reigning Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge, and the women's world record holder Brigid Kosgei, is expected to report to a bubble training camp in Kaptagat, northwestern Kenya on March 3.

"We are retaining the same team selected for the marathon before the Tokyo Olympics were postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic," Athletics Kenya (AK) executive member Barnabas Korir told AFP.

"The selected athletes are in their best form ready to compete after a whole year of inactivity due to the pandemic. There is no need of changing a winning team." The men's team includes the current Boston and Chicago marathon champion Lawrence Cherono and the Doha World Championship marathon bronze medallist Amos Kipruto.

Kosgei, who set a women's world record of 2:14.4 at the 2019 Chicago marathon, will compete alongside the reigning world marathon champion Ruth Chepngetich, and former world 5,000m and 10,000m gold medallist Vivian Cheruiyot.

The marathon team join other Olympic outfits who are embarking next week on training in specialised bubble camps, to counter the spread of Covid-19.

Kenya, a world athletics superpower, finished 15th and as the top African nation at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, with a total of 13 medals -- six gold, six silver and one bronze.

Kenya also topped the overall medals table at the 2015 World Athletics Championships in Beijing, for the first time in their history with seven gold, six silver and three bronze medals.