Team Kenya started their World Mountain and Trail Running Championships on a high with Patrick Kipng’eno bagging gold in the 7.3 km vertical race —featuring 1020m of elevation gain.
Kipng’eno, who became the first Kenyan to win a mountain running world title last year, clocked 40:18 to win gold on Day One of the championship being held in Innsbruck-Stubai Austria. He beat 130 athletes who entered the race.
He beat Uganda’s Levi Kiprotich (41:51) to silver while Kenya’s Josephat Kiprotich (42:04) completed the podium finish.
Kenya’s other representatives—last year’s silver medalist Philemon Kiriago (42:54) and Hillary Maiyo —settled for the 7th and 12 positions respectively.
They will be in action again on Saturday when they take part in the Mountain Classic event, featuring looped 15.5km races for senior men and women.
In the women’s category, Kenya’s Philaries Kisang was beaten to gold by Austria’s Andrew Mayr.
The home girl, who won silver in last year’s championships, clocked 48:14 to win gold while Kisang settled for silver in 48:51. USA’s Grayson Murphy claimed bronze in 49:22. Valentine Ruto (49:59) and Joyce Muthoni (52:09) were 5th and 10th respectively.
Kenya is represented by seven athletes after two Geoffrey Gikuni and Ezekiel Kirui missed out due to visa hitches. Kirui was scheduled to compete in the 85 km long trail while Gikuni was to take part in the 45km short trail.
Athletics Kenya mountain Running chairman Peter Angwenyi accompanied the team to Austria.
More than 1,100 of the world’s top runners from 68 countries are participating in the second edition of the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in the Austrian Alps. The inaugural event was held last November in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Alessio Punzi, Head of Running and Mass Participation at World Athletics said: “The World Championships are a dream come true started in 2017. In the future, we want to attract more and more athletes and make it more and more difficult for everybody to ignore.”
