Jeruto outshines favourites in Mumias AK meet

The World Under-18 800m silver medallist Lydia Jeruto emerged the surprise winner in the women’s 5,000m at the second Athletics Kenya Track and Field championship that kicked off today at the Mumias Sports Complex in Kakamega County.

Jeruto stunned seasoned athletes in the distance including former African Youth champion in 1500m Eva Cherono and the 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Mercy Cherono who was making her comeback after maternity leave and finished fourth.

The athlete, who hails from Baringo County, said she did not expect to win going by the field she was up against.

“For sure I did not expect to win considering that this was my first time competing in this race (5,000m). I was also worried about my competitors. I was using this race as part of my recovery after the World Cross,” said Jeruto.

In the 10,000m men, the Mosoriot-based Simon Letaya took top honours clocking 28:51.1 ahead of Hillary Mosop (28:41.7) and Abel Mutai (28:43.7) who finished second and third respectively.

Godfrey Kipsang was fifth in 28:54.6 while Fredrick Muranga from Keroka clocked 28:57.4 to settle for the sixth spot.

The 30-year-old Letaya said he is working towards representing Kenya for the first time at the All Africa Games.

“It was a good race for me because I had tactically prepared to make a move in the latter stages of the race and that why I pushed with three laps remaining.  I am yearning to represent my country for the first time,” said Letaya.

In the women long jump, Millicent Ndoro took the honours as he recorded a jump of 5.98m ahead of her counterpart Maximilla Imali who jumped 5.55m with Gloria Mulei who won the first series in Nyeri recording a 5.55m jump.

With athletes jostling for tickets for the All African Games slated for Morocco in August and also the World Championships set for Doha, Qatar in September a handful of athletes turned up for the two-day event set to end tomorrow.

Due to the high turnout, majority of the events had to go through preliminary stages with the finals slated for tomorrow.