by Justin Lagat
Geoffrey Kamworor, photo by PhotoRun.net
Geoffrey Kamworor is Kenya’s great hope against the finest long track and road racer in the world, Mo Farah, as they do battle at the World Half Marathon Championships! Here is Just Lagats’ thoughts on the race, with some nice comments from Geoffrey Kamworor from March 22, his last hard workout in Kenya.
The battle between Mo Farah and Geoffrey Kamworor will be taken to the Roads this Saturday in Cardiff:
Kamworor will be in a mission this weekend. “Mo Farah cannot beat Kenyans in both the 5,000m and 10,000m track events at the world championships and then do that again at the world half marathon event,” the patriotic Kamworor said, as he dusted himself after a hard training in Eldoret. He is determined and ready to face Mo Farah, and beat him on Saturday. After his last track workout today (Tuesday 22nd), Kamworor expressed confidence as he prepared to head out of the country to defend his world title.
On the other hand, Mo Farah has always been successful in races where his home ground fans are present. He won two gold medals at the London Olympic Games and also beat Kenya’s Stanley Biwott to win the Great North Run half marathon and defend his title in England.
Kamworor will be seeking to defend his world title and in the process pay Farah back for beating him in the 10,000m track event at last year’s Beijing world championships. Both runners are gifted in distances ranging from the 1500m to the marathon. Mo Farah has faster times in distances not longer than 10,000m while Kamworor has faster times in distances from half marathon to the marathon. Farah’s personal best times in 10,000m, half marathon and marathon are 26:46.57, 59:32 and 2:08:21 while Kamworor’s are 26:52.65, 58:54 and 2:06:12 respectively.
While Farah has been particularly successful in the 5,000m and 10,000m races, Kamworor has been particularly doing well in the cross country, where he holds the world senior title and also held the junior title in 2011, and also in the half marathon distances where he is the reigning world champion besides having won other big half marathon races like the RAK half marathon, Berlin half marathon and Bogota half marathon, among others.
There will also be a healthy competition between the two favorite Kenyans in the field. Bedan Karoki will be aiming to challenge Geoffrey Kamworor after Kamworor prevented him from winning a world title at the IAAF world cross country championships in Nanning last year. Besides taking the top two medals at the world cross country championships, the two have finished first and second in many other local races in Kenya.
Their combination in Cardiff will probably result in a fast race and will increase the chances of Kenyans winning the individual and team titles there.
Another notable runner who will be in the race is Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese. His personal best times in 10,000m and half marathon, 26:37.25 and 58:23, are faster than Farah’s and Kamworor’s. He has also won the IAAF world half marathon title five times and finished second to Wilson Kiprop to take a silver medal in 2010.
But, perhaps that was all in his heyday and a new generation of runners are now taking over from him.
This race promises to be very exciting and nervous for Kenyan fans as long as Mo Farah will remain in, or close with the leading pack. The Kenyan team knows that and will most likely try to break away from Mo Farah before the last stages of the race.
