Stanley Waithaka savours 10,000m silver medal
Newly crowned World Championships 10,000m men's silver medalist, Stanley Waithaka Mburu is optimistic that Kenya will soon bag the elusive gold.
Waithaka finished second behind Uganda Joshua Cheptegei, with another Uganda Jacob Kiplimo bagging bronze in Monday's night race in Oregon, USA.
Waithaka said that silver was good enough given that it was his first senior championships. Kenya last won gold in the race in 2001 in Edmonton, Canada courtesy of Charles Kamathi.
“I’m happy for the medal, though I wanted to win a gold medal for my country. This was my first 10,000m race in the championships and I had prepared well because I knew it was going to be tough. I fell down but that did not stop me from doing my best,” said Waithaka.
He said that Kenyans are known for running from the front and they sat with his coaches Francis Kamau (master) and Daniel Njenga and hatched a plan on how to attack the race.
“We planned with my coaches for this medal and that is why I just ran in the back and didn’t want to feature anywhere in the leading pack. It is the last two laps that I decided to surge forward and it worked well,” said Waithaka, who joined Yakurt Company in Japan in 2018.
He also thanked his compatriots Mateiko and Kwemoi for the good fight because they managed to hang on to the last minute.
Waithaka acknowledged that Cheptegei is a strong athlete, but he believes his days are numbered and he will soon be dominating the race.
Cheptegei successfully defend his title after timing 27:27.43 to pick gold as Waithaka settled second in 27:27.90 after being tripped in the initial stages. Kenya improved on its performance after winning bronze in Doha three years ago through Rhonex Kipruto.
Olympic champion Selemon Barega finished a disappointing fifth in 27:28.39 behind USA's Grant Fisher who timed 27:28.14.
It was a fascinating race with Ugandan and Ethiopian athletes exchanging leads in the fast-paced race before Cheptegei took the lead in the last lap, sprinting all the way to the finish line.
Kenya's Daniel Mateiko came in eighth position after clocking 27:33.57, while Rodgers Kwemoi settled for 15th position clocking 27:52.26.
“The race needs a lot of teamwork and that is the only way we can be able to bag gold medal in future. I want to thank everybody who contributed to this medal including my family and my coaches,” he said.
Waithaka finished second during the national trials at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi behind Kibiwott Kandie, who couldn’t compete in the World Championships because he had not met the qualifying time. BY DAILY NATION
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