African championships: Kenya wins men's 4x400m relay.

ethiopian athletics fedration should learn from the kenyan. here you can see the depth of the talent of kenyan from 400 to 10000mr.

ethiopia relay on only three or four athletes( with 5000 n 10000mr.

i can see kenyan domination in the near future.

bravo Kenyan !!!! what a performance

We can do it again, or so was the message on Saturday when Edith Masai led a clean Kenyan sweep in 10,000m at the just-ended Africa Athletics Championships in Mauritius.

What was even sweeter about the victory was that it was against archrivals Ethiopia. However, it was not the victory alone that caught the Kenyan eye. Our girls were tactically superior from the start.

Masai, Isabella Ochichi and Emily Chebet ran like a unit and covered well for one another. It showed that their priority was victory for the country, not a medal for themselves. Such teamwork has been lacking in our track teams.

We hope this spirit would brush off to the junior team competing for honours in Beijing, China, starting tomorrow. A good run would wipe away the shame visited on the country by age cheats.

We congratulate the senior team for emerging second overall in Mauritius with 15 medals.

ententry.asp?cahttp://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgconttegory_id=5&newsid=79315

SPORTS

Big welcome for aces

Story by CHRIS MUSUMBA

Publication Date: 08/15/2006

Florence Wasike, left, and Josephine Nyarunda display their bronze medals won in the 4x400m relay at the Africa athletics championships in Bambous, Mauritius.

Photo by Mohammed Amin

A triumphant Kenyan team arrived back yesterday afternoon to a red carpet reception after it emerged second overall in the ranking with eight gold, four silver and three silver medals in the just concluded Africa athletics championships in Bambous, Mauritius.

Sports minister Maina Kamanda led a government delegation in welcoming back the team and promised to reward the squad just as he did with the team that went to the commonwealth games in Melbourne Australia. Kenya won in eight track events and surprised many when it clinched the gold in 4x400m relays men and bronze in women while David Kimutai won in the 20km walk.

Contrary to earlier announcement that majority of the Kenyan stars will not be coming home but link up directly to Europe for this weekend Grand Prix circuit meet in Zurich, Switzerland, it was a full house with all medallists present. Speaking at the Airport upon, arrival, Kamanda restated that Kenyan athletes need not to cheat to conquer the world as there was enough talent at the grass root to do the country proud in international championships. He was referring to a scandal that rocked the junior team to world championship in Beijing which starts today.

National head coach Dan Muchoki, was happy that his team had done well in the championship and pointed out the continuity in training and schedule of major championship in the athletics calendar as a major reason why the squad had such good form. Two athletes Commonwealth Games 800m champion Alex Kipchirchir and Mike Kigen clinched two medals each. Kipchirchir won gold in 800 and 1,500m while Kigen won silver in 5,000 and 10,000m.

However, Athletics Kenya (AK) chairman Isaiah Kiplagat challenged the government to get involved in the development of athletics in the country by sponsoring of international coaches to take over technical aspects of areas, local coaches are yet to grasp. He pointed out the sprints and field events in which Kenya is yet to find its footing as areas that need assistance by the government hiring full time qualified coaches from abroad.

For over 13 years, Kenya has failed to win in the relays events, and victory in the championship by George Kwoba, Vincent Mumo, Sammy Rono, Thomas Musembi and a fourth slot finish for Cecilia Kiplagat in javelin has reignited debate of developing a strong team in the field and relays to boost Kenya's medal prospects in international championships. South Africa which won the overall title had four of its nine gold medals from the field events.

Muchoki noted that competition was tight as the 45 countries that participated brought their best stars in quest for a slot in the world cup which will be held in September in Athens Greece. Kenya managed to secure 12 slots from eight gold medallist and the four men relay team. Muchoki pointed out that the windy condition in Mauritius denied many athletes to run faster times.

"Like our relay team would have qualified directly for Olympics if their time was better. they ran in 3:06 while the world standard is at 3:04;44, however, they have time to recover and attain this time when they take part in the world championships in Osaka Japan next year," Muchoki said.