Making his debut at the Olympic Games and graduating into senior cadre, two time national cross country junior champion Samuel Chebolei wants to emulate his elder brother Ronald Kwemoi in hunting for an Olympic Games medal in Tokyo, Japan.
Chebolei, who used to train with his brother, the World junior 1,500m record holder Kwemoi under coach John Litei, the former Commonwealth 800m bronze medalist, said he wants to run like his brother who has dominated track events in 5,000m and 1,500m.
Despite Kwemoi missing into the team after finishing in a bad position, Chebolei said he wants to run like his brother.
“He is my pillar when it comes to training and competing. We have been training together and that has bonded us more,” said Chebolei, who was born in Mount Elgon, Bungoma County.
But he revisited the horror state he went through in 2018 when he was ejected from the Kenya for Africa athletics championships, saying all is in the past and his focus is to chess an Olympic medal in 5,000m alongside former Africa junior cross country champion Nicholas Kipkorir Kimeli and Daniel Simiu.
“I was frustrated in 2018, being ejected from the team without explaining to me the reason why I could not be in the team, but am mature enough to face the challenges. My focus is to win a medal for this country,” said Chebolei who is in the training camp in Kasarani.
The two time national junior 5,000m champion said that the preparations are going on so well and the Tokyo journey will be great after missing the 2020 Africa cross country championships due to the COVID-19 upsurge in Lome, Togo.
“This will be the greatest moment in my life after missing junior races due to COVID-19 and I hope that I will represent my country well at the Olympics,” he added.
After finishing 8th at the 2019 world cross country championships in Aarhus, Denmark, this will be the second time he will be wearing Kenyan uniform.
Chebolei, who won the 2018 national title initially he had not qualified but after running last weekend’s Hengelo 5,000m earned the qualifying standards in 13:12.53.
“In all this preparation, I was doing this to get a ticket to represent my country at the Olympic Games. Luckily I cut into the Kenya team and was ready to bring glory to lift the flag high,” he said.