Team Kenya for this year’s 7th World Relays will leave the country tonight for Guangzhou, China, for the two-day event scheduled for the 10th and 11th of this month.
The team will leave at 6:10 pm aboard flight QR 1336 via Doha, expected to arrive in China on Thursday afternoon.
Commonwealth 100m champion Ferdinand Omanyala, will lead a team of 21 athletes and is expected to steer the 4x100m relay team alongside his sibling Isaac Omurwa, Meshack Babu, Mark Otieno, Steven Oyango and Moses Wasike.
After a three week residential training camp at the Ulinzi Sports Complex the team is heading to China not only to compete for medals, but also seek qualification times for the 20th World Athletics Championships set for Tokyo, Japan, later in September.
Following a successful residential training session, coach Stanley Towet, exuded confidence that they will perform well in Guangzhou.
“Training has been smooth from the word go, and I have witnessed a lot of improvement in the athletes, for example, when we started the camp, the athletes were clocking over 12 seconds in the 120m sprints, but this has dropped to 11.5. This gives us hope of performing well in the 4x100m.” “We have done most of what we expected even though we will tune up once in China to shake off the jet lag and acclimatise,” he said.
Towet tipped both the 4x400m men’s team and the 4x400m mixed relays to qualify for the Tokyo World Athletics Championships after impressing in training.
“We have three 4x400m men who have clocked 44 seconds over 400m and three women who have run 51 seconds,we have very high hopes about them qualifying for the World Championships in the 4x400m and the 4x400m mixed relays.”he concluded
Making his first senior appearance, Omurwa, who is also the youngest squad member, is ready to announce himself on the international stage this weekend.
“We have hopes that we will bring back good results from China. The target for all the athletes is qualification for the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, in September.”said Omurwa
Omanyala, Olympian Zablon Ekwam and Coach Simon Riga are already in China as part of the Team Kenya advance party.
However, the 4x400m mixed relay team has been dealt a major blow following the withdrawal of the 800m world champion Mary Moraa due to a visa hitch.
Kenya will compete in the 4x400m for both men and women,4x400m mixed relay and 4x100m men in Guangzhou.
