Reigning African Championships 20km race walk silver medallist Stephen Ndangiri Kihu, Loice Chemnung and Charles Koboino took charge, winning their respective races at the second day of the Athletics Kenya National championships cum Commonwealth Games trials at the Nyayo National stadium today.
With experience from the Africa championships in Accra, Ghana, Ndangili extended his dominance by winning the 10,000m race-walk title by out staging Samuel Gathimba and former world under 20 10,000m champion Heristone Wafula wanyoni.
Competing for Kenya defence Forces (KDF), he won the title in 39:14.0 followed by national record holder Gathimba to second at 39:45.4, while Wanyonyi completed the podium in 40:59.7.
He became the first KDF to win the title since 2014, ending the long wait following the dominance by the National Police Service.
The victory has put him in the right path for the Queens Games set of Glasgow, Scotland.
“Today’s Competition was too tough since Gathimba has been dominating me since 2023. I have tried different tactics which were not successful but today, it worked. I employed a different tactic in Ghana and it worked. I decided to go hard right from the gun and challenge anyone who was strong enough to come and catch me,” said Ndangili.
In Accra, Ndangiri stormed to the silver medal in the 20km race walk in 1:20:01, finishing behind Ethiopia’s Misgana Wakuma, who won gold in 1:18:47.
He wants to lower his time in Glasgow to 39 minutes.
Chemnung won the women’s 10,000m to defend her national title by beating Africa 10,000m champion Diana Wanza.
Chemnung, from Kenya Prisons won the title in 31:46.90, Wanza, second at 31:56.80 while Selah Busienei completed the podium after clocking 32:01.85.
In men’s 10,000m, Koboino was the surprise winner in the race after beating bigwigs in a fierce evening race.
Competing in the second heat, Koboino from central Rift won with the fastest time of 28:21.52 ahead of Ismael Rokitto Kipkurui, who won in heat one with 28:28.42 before Edwin Kurgat, sho was second to Kipkurui in heat one in 28:29.05.