AFP, Kaptagat :
Dawn comes misty and cold on the steep sides of the Nyaru escarpment as Kenya’s Olympic men’s marathon team begin their training run, a line-up of veteran athletes including a current lawmaker.
With the Rio Olympics Games less than two months away, the team with two-time London marathon winner Eliud Kipchoge and 2012 Boston marathon champ Wesley Korir, have stepped up their preparations in a bid to reclaim the title they last won eight years ago.
The 32-year-old Korir is also a serving member of the Kenyan parliament, well known as an anti-doping campaigner.
A surprise inclusion in the squad, he joined the team for the first time to run the 40-kilometre (25-mile) course and was left bruised after the workout near Eldoret in Kenya’s north-west region.
“The key now is to train hard, stay focused and remain healthy. I think we are going to take the top three positions in Rio,” Korir, taking a break from politics to train, told AFP.
Korir says he is “excited to be the first-ever sitting Member of Parliament anywhere in the world to get the opportunity to run at the Olympics”.
He has been training alone around the Ngong Hills outside the capital Nairobi.
“I was scared at the beginning because I have never done a 40K here in Kenya,” he told AFP.
“What I learnt today is that I need to do more hill work to build the strength in my legs. Today proved that I am on the right track — so what I need to do is stay healthy and continue the training with my teammates.”
Kenya won its first-ever Olympic men’s marathon medal in 2008, when the late Samuel Wanjiru powered his way through the streets of the Chinese capital Beijing, to become the youngest champion at age 21.
Dawn comes misty and cold on the steep sides of the Nyaru escarpment as Kenya’s Olympic men’s marathon team begin their training run, a line-up of veteran athletes including a current lawmaker.
With the Rio Olympics Games less than two months away, the team with two-time London marathon winner Eliud Kipchoge and 2012 Boston marathon champ Wesley Korir, have stepped up their preparations in a bid to reclaim the title they last won eight years ago.
The 32-year-old Korir is also a serving member of the Kenyan parliament, well known as an anti-doping campaigner.
A surprise inclusion in the squad, he joined the team for the first time to run the 40-kilometre (25-mile) course and was left bruised after the workout near Eldoret in Kenya’s north-west region.
“The key now is to train hard, stay focused and remain healthy. I think we are going to take the top three positions in Rio,” Korir, taking a break from politics to train, told AFP.
Korir says he is “excited to be the first-ever sitting Member of Parliament anywhere in the world to get the opportunity to run at the Olympics”.
He has been training alone around the Ngong Hills outside the capital Nairobi.
“I was scared at the beginning because I have never done a 40K here in Kenya,” he told AFP.
“What I learnt today is that I need to do more hill work to build the strength in my legs. Today proved that I am on the right track — so what I need to do is stay healthy and continue the training with my teammates.”
Kenya won its first-ever Olympic men’s marathon medal in 2008, when the late Samuel Wanjiru powered his way through the streets of the Chinese capital Beijing, to become the youngest champion at age 21.
