Olympic Games 800m champion Mary Moraa will miss the World Athletics Relays Championships set for Guangzhou, China next weekend.
With the team set to depart tomorrow for the World Athletics Relay champions, Moraa will be out of the team following her visa hitches.
The team, which has been camping at the Ulinzi Sports Complex will be leaving tomorrow for the world relays set for May 10th to 11th.
Head Coach Stanley Towet is hopeful they will put their days of tough training to good use when they compete at the seventh edition of the global showpiece. He observed remarkable improvements in his athletes.
“Training has been smooth from the word go and I have witnessed a lot of improvement in the athletes,” said Towet.
“We have done most of what we expected to even though we will tune up once in China to shake off the jet lag and acclimatise,” he said.
Towet hopes to have longer residential training in the future.
“Relays require at least a month in training to harmonise all the aspects, especially baton flow in the 4x100m,” said Towet. The credentials of some of the athletes is encouraging, he observed
Isaac Omurwa, the young brother of Commonwealth Games 100m champion Ferdinand Omanyala one of the youngest members of Team Kenya, is thrilled to make his first senior outing.
Training with sprinting old guards has whet his appetite for glory and is already thinking about the September World championships in Tokyo.
“The camp has been good. The coaches and athletes have been cooperative. I can’t complain,” said Omurwa.
“We have hopes that we will bring back good results from China. The targets for all the athletes is qualification for the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, in September.” “This is my first World (Relay) Championships, and I am happy about it. I have a lot of expectations, what to see, what to do. I will be running amongst senior athletes with Ferdinand, Wiseman (Were) and Mweresa (Boniface), great athletes who have done great things in the sport. I am looking up to them and they have been telling me what to do and what not to. I have learnt a lot from them.”
Omanyala, Olympian Zablon Ekwam and coach Simon Riga are already in China as part of the Team Kenya advance party.