Kenyan world champions coming for KL '98 Games

27/08/1998

KUALA LUMPUR, Wed. - The world-renowned Kenyans, masters over the middle
and long distance, will provide an added attraction to the Kuala Lumpur
Commonwealth Games track and field.
Three of their best 3,000m steeplechase runners have been named for the
Games.
They are world champion Wilson Boit Kipketer, world record holder
Bernard Barmasai and Olympic champion Joseph Keter.
Also in the track and field list are Japheth Kimutai, the current world
number one in the 800m, and Daniel Komen, the world 3,000m indoor
champion.
They are among the 27 men and 11 women in the athletics team to the
Games.
The Kenyans, who have dominated the middle and long distance in every
major world athletics meet, won five gold medals in the last Games in 1994
in Victoria.
"They are a force to be reckoned with and always a delight to watch them
run," said former sprint king Datuk Dr M. Jegathesan, who competed in the
1966 Jamaica Games.
Also in the list is Jackline Maranga, the 1996 World Junior silver
medallist and Paul Koech, the third fastest man in the world in the
10,000m.
Four-time world cross country champion Paul Tergat is injured and out of
the Games. Based on the performances, the Kenyans are likely to finish 1-
2-3 in the 3,000m steeplechase. All of them - Kipketer, Barmasai and
Keter, have clocked times far better than the rest in the field.
(END)