Newly-crowned world marathon record holder Brigid Kosgei is still keen on lowering her 2:14:04 clocking from Sunday's Chicago Marathon even further as she also targets the half marathon record.
The 25-year-old returned to Nairobi on Tuesday night and was treated to a reception at Riadha House by Athletics Kenya, led by president Jackson Tuwei, vice president in charge of competitions, Paul Mutwii and Youth Development chairman Barnaba Korir.
Kosgei observed that, even though she is yet to plan her next course of action with her team, she is certain that she will seek to prove that her performance in Chicago was not a fluke.
“I know with persistence and discipline it is possible to succeed and I can achieve more. I cannot do much without my support staff who guided me to deliver the record and we can better that time and add more accolades,” said Kosgei.
These include the world half marathon record, currently being held by Joyciline Jepkosgei at 1:04:51, set at the Prague Half marathon in 2017.
In addition, Kosgei has also offered herself to represent Kenya, for the first time, at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“Yes, I am available for the Tokyo Olympics. It will be a great joy to don the national colours for the first time, gunning for the title and still attacking the record,” said Kosgei.
Interestingly, Kosgei said she never had thoughts of smashing Paula Radcliff’s 16-year-old record of 2:15:28 before the race.
“I was only targeting to lower my personal best from 2:18:20 to 2:16:50 or thereabout but God had other better intentions for me and luckily I broke the record,” noted Kosgei, who is under the Rosa and Associates management.
Tuwei applauded the world-beater for her stellar performance in Chicago and was impressed that she was already looking beyond last weekend’s race.
“This is good. She is even ready to represent the country at the Olympics. We want to work with the government, counties and schools to support each other in coming up with good training facilities so that they complement each other.” said Tuwei.
Kosgei, a mother to twins, Faith Chepchumba and Brian Kibet, hailed her coach — former Honolulu Marathon champion Erick Kimaiyo alongside the rest of the support staff saying they play a key role in her career.
Meanwhile, Kimaiyo, Kosgei’s athletics tutor of five years insisted that the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya are on his runners’ case but remained confident that she is clean.
He shipped all responsibility of the doping menace on athletes. He said that no one takes or is given the banned substances while asleep so they should shoulder the blame.
"The athletes are the only ones who can say how they doped and point out who aided them to ingest prohibited substances. We cannot absolve anyone found guilty of flaunting the anti-doping rules from the blame,” indicated Kimiyo.
