Time for ‘Kenya’s race’ in Doha
By People Reporter, October 4, 2019By Keith McGhie in Doha
Conseslus Kipruto is fully aware that Kenya expects success when the men’s 3,000m steeplechase final takes place at 9.45pm (Kenyan time) this evening.
The defending champion from London 2017 is back in the confident, almost cheekily conceited mindset that he has become known and loved for, as was evident from his casual yet clinical qualification on Tuesday night.
Having shaken off the opposition, Kipruto and countryman Benjamin Kigen were able to laugh and chat as they almost ambled to the finishing line.
Such cockiness is not without foundation though as the reigning World, Olympic, Commonwealth and African champion knows how to win and when he is in shape to do it.
“I feet very confident now that I have come back from injury and am fit again. I am ready to defend the title,” Kipruto claimed with steely determination in his eyes.
“Sometimes you are feeling the pressure when you are the defending champion and in my country, they call the steeplechase the ‘Kenyan event’ so people expect us to win it. I think people had doubts about me this year but I am fit again and experienced enough to know what I need to do to defend the championship,” he added.
“I had an injury at the beginning of the season and was out for about two and a half months,” he said
The stress fracture in Kipruto’s left foot healed but his renowned confidence also took a visible knock which only hard training and success in racing would cure.
“There was a time when I thought I was not going to make it back in time to defend the championship,” he admits, adding: “We had several different winners in the Diamond League; Soufiane El Bakkali, Getnet Wale, Benjamin Kige. Those competitors are probably pretty equal and I am ready for all of them.”
Kipruto and African Games champion Kigen, drawn in the same heat, were laughing and chatting coming down the home-straight as they finished first and second to qualify, having watched compatriots Leonard Bett, the Kenyan trials winner, and one time African junior champion Abraham Kibiwot also comfortably make the cut to progress to tonight’s medal decider.
In Kipruto’s enforced absence and recuperation period, Ethiopians El Bakkali and Wale have clocked two of the three fastest times of the year, split only in the rankings by Kigen’s lifetime best 8:05.12 in Monaco.