Chespol too good for peers, Chebet dominates 5,000m

Defending champion Cellephine Chespol Cheptek and Mercy Chepkirui secured a one-two finish in the IAAF Under-20 Championship Trials at the Kasarani Stadium today as they bagged automatics spots in the team to fly Kenya’s flag at the competitions set for Tampere, Finland next month.

Chespol clocked 9:26.57 with Chepkirui managing 9:29.42 in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase.

In the men’s 1,500m heats, Justus Soget was the most impressive qualifier, winning his heat with ease in 3 minutes, 45.97 seconds, while George Manangoi also qualified with a time of 3.49.01.

Earlier on at the same venue, the 2018 Africa Cross Country junior champion Rhonex Kipruto shone taking the men’s 5,000m title to secure his place on the Kenyan team.

Finishing well with the best time inside the World U20 Championship standard,  Kipruto clocked 27:49.60.

“I feel great.  I am so happy now that I managed to get myself ticket to represent Kenya with the best time. Now I hope I can get even faster in Finland. I was confident going into today’s event but I was also nervous because I knew that everyone was running well.

“I will continue training hard knowing that there is tough time ahead meeting with other world runners.  I now want to stay healthy, get stronger, and make sure everything is good and ready for Finland,” Said Kipruto.

Solomon Kiplimo Boit finished second with 28:18.10, and was pleased to secure his spot in the Finland bound team.

Beatrice Chebet ran in 15:31.66 to clinch the women’s 5,000m finals with Hellen Ekalale and Deborah Chemutai finishing second and third respectively.

“I am happy to have won this race. Last year during the world U-18 Championships I didn’t perform well in 3,000m. I came fourth so today being my first time to run 5,000m I will do it to my best level,” she said.

The team selected will head to residential camp immediately to prepare for the games that will run from July 10-15 in Tampere, Finland.

The trials will bring together 26 athletes each selected from the Secondary Schools National Sports Association Games as well as athletes who were chosen from the regional trials.

The criteria of selecting the national team will be based on the first two athletes in all the events.