by Justin Lagat
Bedan Karoki, Kenya XC 2015, photo by PhotoRun.net
Fresh off his RAK half marathon win, Bedan Karoki returns to Kenya and wins the selection for the upcoming World cross country in Kampala. Here’s how Justin Lagat saw the race from his view on the course. Enjoy A view from Kenya.
The men’s senior race was a spectacular one and it saw the Kenya police team display their dominance in the event by finishing 1-2-3. From the early stages, it was a fast race. After the first lap of 2km, Bedan Karoki kept glancing at his watch, which was an indication that he was getting concerned with the fast pace. The leading pack did not take long before it was reduced to only six athletes with Karoki seeming to be almost dropping behind as Leornard Barsoton increased the pace ahead.
With one lap to go, only Barsoton and Kamworor were in the lead as the rest followed in a single file. Karoki seemed to be far behind in sixth place. But, with a kilometer to go, Karoki kept gaining on and overtaking athletes ahead of him until he edged Kamworor to finish second as Kamworor took third. Barsoton was able to hold on to the lead to emerge as the winner.
The senior women’s race also delivered an exciting race for the crowds. After a short lead by Agnes Tirop, Alice Aprot soon took to the lead and continued setting a blistering pace that soon saw only four athletes in the leading pack. Irene Cheptai, Lilian Kasait and Faith Chepng’etich perservered the pace set by Aprot.
After Aprot, Chepng’etich took the turn to managing the pace, dropping Aprot from the pack. But, with a lap to go, she also got dropped. Cheptai and Kasait decided to do a replay of what had happened at the Nike Discovery Cross country event that happened a few weeks ago. The two had dueled in the last lap at the event, where Cheptai had won and Kasait took second. Was it going to be the same here, or was Kasait going to dig deeper and emerge as the winner this time round?
This created and exciting finish with about one kilometer to go, as Kasait led while Cheptai tried a number of times to overtake and Kasait kept resisting. With about 150m to go, the two athletes ran parallel to each other before Cheptai suddenly appeared slightly ahead, then a small gap began to open up as Cheptai ran frantically to cut the tape and emerged the winner. Kasait followed closely for second place. Chepng’etich took third while Aprot came in to take fourth.
With Lilian Kasait having just moved up to the senior category, a new name in the junior category was expected to emerge. After another exciting race, it be Sandra Jebet who stepped out to take Kasait’s place as she won the junior race comfortably.
Another comfortable win was witnessed in the junior men’s race as Richard Kimunyan opened a huge gap in the last stages of the race to win the title and went ahead to promise a good race in Kampala.
