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IAAF WORLD ATHLETICS: RED CARPET ROLLED OUT FOR KENYAN SQUAD , FINISH SECOND OVERALL September 4, 2007
(SomaliNet) The red carpet is out ahead of the national athletics team’s arrival today from Osaka where they finished second overall at the 11th IAAF World Athletics Championships.
Athletics Kenya secretary, David Okeyo, yesterday announced that the team would arrive at 6 pm aboard an Emirates Airlines flight from the Japanese city.
“They have done us proud and the focus is now on next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing,” Okeyo said yesterday.
“Most of the athletes in the Osaka team are young and they are the same ones we will rely on for medals in Beijing with a few additions. We will not rest simply because we did well in Osaka,” Okeyo added.
Against all odds, Kenya staged its best ever performance in the history of the World Athletics Championships winning 13 medals - five gold, three silver and five bronze - as the curtains came down on the biannual global event in Osaka on Sunday night.
With critics having written off the team, which was Kenya’s smallest contingent yet in the 24-year competition’s history, the joint effort by both the coaches and Athletics Kenya officials ensured Kenya finished second behind the large US team that grabbed a total of 26 medals.
However, no elaborate plans to party with all the medals are in place yet as a good number of the medallists will travel to Europe having been contracted to run in several track meets, including Friday’s Weltklasse Zurich Golden League meet. –Nation