Commonwealth Games, Kenya closely rivaled Australia in medals table
New Delhi – Competitions for the track and field disciplines for Delhi Commonwealth Games came to an end on Tuesday night at Jawaharlal Nehru stadium with Australia coming first and Kenya second.
A few days back when sending the athletes to Delhi, Kenya was among the countries, who felt hesitant in making the decision. However, after much consideration, Kenyan players were finally sent and their performance at the medal table showed that Kenyan sports
authorities made the right decision.
On Tuesday evening when competitions for track and field sports disciplines came to an end, Kenya completely swept the podiums in men’s and women’s 3000 meters steeplechase races, women’s 5000 meters and men’s 800 meters races. Kenya ended the day with nine
gold medals, nine silver and six bronze medals in its bag. This was perhaps the first time for the country that it finished with a remarkable 25 medals altogether.
However, despite such a splendid performance, Kenya could not make it to the top as Australia grabbed the top position with eleven gold medals, five silver and 2 bronze medals. For Australia, three top medals were added by the para-sport competition.
With marathon races for men and women still to go with, Kenya still stands a chance to surpass Australia on the medal table. However, owing to the tiring preparations for the event, Australian athletes were rather confident to continue dominating the medal
table.
The hopes for Kenya to outdo Australia on the medal table surfaced on Tuesday when Vivian Cheruiyot and Silas Kiplagat, the World champion and African champions, repectively, won the 9th and 10th gold for the country at Jawaharlal Nehru
stadium Delhi.
During the competition, Cheruiyot made it to the gold medal in women’s 5000 meters race as she edged past Sylvia Kibet, the silver winner at Berlin, in a thrilling final lap. Iness Chenonge from Kenya succeeded in making it to the finishing line after Sylvia
and Cheruiyot, and won a bronze for the Kenyan side. The time taken by Cheruiyot, Sylvia and Chenonge to make it to the finishing line was 15:55:12, 15:55:16 and 16:02:47 respectively.
The marvelous performance by the women runners of Kenya was preceded by Silas Kiplagat who had led the first ever Kenyan 1-2 in the men’s 1500 meters race. The performance of Kenyan athletes at track and field has stamped their authority in the distance
running.
The performance of Kenyan runners for the women’s 5000 meters kept on grabbing the attention of the media and spectators during the whole competition. Armada from Kenya was perhaps the most visible runner as she was ahead from the rest of her challengers
by six laps.
At the medals ceremony, when Cerhiyot and Kibet were representing the Kenyan side, for most of their spectators it was a reminiscent of the Berlin World Championship.
The success of Kibet was particularly mind blowing for the Kenyan side as prior to the games event the runner had been suffering from severe injuries. Moreover, Chenonge too had been back after eight long years. Last time she had run at Manchester games.
The girl was happy that even after an absence of eight long years she made it to the bronze at the Delhi Games.
Sharing her views regarding her success, Cheruiyot said that she had never won in any Commonwealth Games before, and she was happy that finally all the medals were going home with her. Kibet too was looking rather happy with the success of Cheruiyot, sharing
his thoughts to the media personnel he said that though the competition was tough, she performed well in the competition. He further said that he too would work harder next time.
A spectator from Kenya, while giving her views said that after a marvelous performance of the Kenyan athletes, she was remembering the words of the great civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, who had dreamed for his black brothers to win gold. She said
that it was the day when the dream of the great leader too came to life.
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