Former Lille half marathon champion Doreen Cherop and former La coruna marathon winner Dominic Cheronges were among the 60 athletes that benefitted from relief food donated by Eldiud Kipchoge Foundation and Eldoret Grains Limited.
Today, the sixty athletes, 20 from Eldoret, and other 20 from Iten and Kaptagat were relieved from the biting hunger courtesy of coronavirus pandemic after the races, both locally and internationally were either cancelled or postponed.
Cherop, who was preparing for races abroad was forced to cushion her ambitions after all her races were called off.
“I was well prepared to run and was fit for the titles but the virus has cost us a lot. I really depend on small races in the country and across the world but they are no longer there for us,” said Cherop.
Cheronges who was second at the first meeting of Athletics Kenya series in Eldoret said he was planning for good results this year after opening the season on high.
“Finishing second in 1,500m was not easy since I run in road races but I did that as part of my training ahead of other road races,” said Cheronges.
According to the world marathon record holder, he picked athletes in various training centres to benefit from the relief food.
“The situation for athletes is not good since the affected ones lack other source of income like having monthly salaries, depending heavily on races abroad. They are really in hard times. We decided to partner to help them,” said Kipchoge.
Accompanied by Eldoret Grains Limited Head of Human Resource and Administration Awadh Jamal Kipchoge traversed the running counties of Uasin Gishu and Elgeyo Marakwet on a mission.
Jamal said: “This is part of Cooperate Social Responsibility (CSR) to those in need and this pandemic has affected all people. We hope that we will change Kenyans’ life in the capacity that we understand. We are also calling upon other partners to cooperate to help them.”