president Jack Tuwei wants to see Kenya get back to the top of the table as the athletes eye the in Tokyo, Japan.
Kenya has recently struggled to make an impact in the middle and long distances on the global stage but believes that with the new calendar set up by the federation, the athletes will get back to winning ways next season.
explained that when the athletes start their seasons in October, competing in the , they will be able to build upon their momentums and by the time the global event approaches, they will be ready to compete with the crème de la crème of the world.
Asbel Kiprop Kiprono and Maureen Jepkoech claimed victories in the men's and women's 10km senior races at the first Athletics Kenya Cross Country Series in Machakos.
“This is one of the programs that we have…two weeks ago, we launched our calendar for all the events starting from now because normally, our calendar starts in October and we are in October, so it will run until next October,” Tuwei said.
“We have that calendar of events showing all the details of what we want to do for the road to Tokyo and one of the requirements in the calendar is to have the cross-country championships which normally starts at the beginning of the season. The season starts in October and this is the first one here, it’s part of that program towards preparing for Tokyo.”
He insisted on the importance of athletes incorporating cross-country races in their calendar, noting that it helps in building up their endurance and maintaining their form to the end of the season.
The other legs are scheduled for Kapsokwony (October 26), Bomet (November 2), Olkalau (November 30), Kisii (December 14) and Iten (January 4).
“We shall have six series then we shall go to Kapsokwony, then Iten and the Ol Kalau and others will follow until we finish. The reason for this is that it’s part of the preparation and in fact, I want to encourage all the athletes to start preparations as early as now because when you get into good shape early, you are likely to continue until the end of the season. I would like to urge all the athletes to start preparations because we have given the direction and produced the calendar and we are doing the actual work.”