World 5,000m champion could be mulling at dropping her double bid in the ongoing World Athletics Championships if her post 10,000m race interview is anything to go by.
In an interview, Obiri said she is not sure if she will feature in the 12-lap race after her body failed to respond in the 10,000m.
Obiri, who was making her debut in the10,000m on the world stage on Saturday night, attributed her fifth-place finish to a long season and was uncertain of defending her speciality.
“It has been a long season for me. My body failed to respond as expected in the women’s 10,000m final and the laps were twice the ones I am used to in the 5,000m. The weather was good and I tried my best but my body failed to respond when it mattered most. I am not sure if I will run in the 5,000m race,” she said.
Meanwhile, after settling for world 10,000m bronze medal for the second time running, Agnes Tirop has promised to work on her final two laps in a bid to compete for the gold medal in her next assignment.
Kenya had fronted a triumvirate of Tirop, Obiri and Rosemary Wanjiru, who seemed headed for a clean sweep but their plans were thwarted with three laps to go. Wanjiru finished fourth while Obiri came a distant fifth.
Tirop admitted that the final 800m was her major undoing after settling for bronze behind Sifan Hassan of Netherlands and Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia to take Kenya’s medal tally to two. Ruth Chepng’etich hit the ground running with a gold medal in the women’s marathon on the opening day of the championships.
Coincidentally, she finished third in the 2017 edition held in London and she has opened up on her intentions to work on her finishing prowess in the subsequent events.
“Honestly, I have to work on my “kicking” in the final two laps of the race. It’s a challenge we had as the Kenyan team but I will work on that as I prepare for the Olympic Games next year. It’s time I improved my kick and maintain the rhythm to the tape,” she noted.
Having claimed bronze twice in succession, the former world cross country champion said she had come of age and will scale her training as she positions herself to muscle for the gold medal in her next assignment.
“Besides working on my finishing, I will train with an ambition of winning the speciality. I have had enough of bronze and I hope in my next assignment the gold medal will be mine to lose.”
