Kenya names team to world athletics championships


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Wilfred Bungei is among the eight athletes selected by Athletics Kenya (AK) to represent the country at next month’s 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain.

According to the list released Tuesday by the AK Secretary-General David Okeyo, the 3000-metre indoor and outdoor World record holder Daniel Komen, and renowned long distance runners Veronica Nyaruai and Paul Koech are also on the team.

The two-day World Indoor Championships are slated for 7-9 March in Valencia.

The full team comprises males runners – Richard Kiplagat, Wilfred Bungei (800m), Daniel Komen, Suleiman Kimotwo (1500m) Paul Koech, Edwin Soi (3000m).

The female runners are Sylvia Kibet and Veronica Wanjiru (3000m).

Okeyo gave the selected athletes up to Friday to confirm their acceptances or be replaced with other runners.

Bungei won the 800-metre gold at the 2006 World Indoor Championships in Moscow, beating South Africa’s Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and the then Olympic Champion Yuriy Borzakovsky of Russia.

Bungei was ranked number one in the world in over the distance in 2002 and 2003.

He also boasts a personal best of 1:42.34 which he clocked in Rieti, Italy, in 2002.

At the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton, Canada, he won a silver medal, finishing behind Andre Bucher.

Komen, a middle and long distance runner, is the second man to break both the 13 -minute mark in the 5000m run as three and half minute mark for the 1500m.

He holds the 3000m indoor and outdoor World records. On 1 September, 1996, in Rieti, Italy, he clocked 7:20.67 in 3000m, breaking the World record set by Moroccan Noureddine Morceli by 4.4 seconds.

Koech, a 3000m steeplechase runner, won a bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympi c Games, is a 2006 African Championships gold medallist and finished first at th e 2007 World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, Germany.

Veronica Nyaruai settled for bronze at the 2007 World Cross Country Championship s in Mombasa, a year that saw her settle for silver in the 1500m at the All-Africa Games in Algiers, Algeria.

She also struck the 3000m gold at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Beijing, China.

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