Kenyan Athletes Shine at World U-20 Championships

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Benson Kiplagat on Thursday evening, 19th August won Kenya’s first gold medal in the men’s 5000m final at the World Under-20 Championships.

Kiplagat won the title with a personal best of 13:20.37 ahead of Ethiopia’s Tadese Worku who clocked 13:20.65 with Levy Kibet finishing third after timing 13:26.01.

Kiplagat ensured that he retained the title that was won by another Kenyan Edward Zakayo in Tampere, Finland in 2018.

“Am so excited with the gold medal that I did not expect but good preparations earned me the title. I am really excited for the gold medal. I didn’t know that I will win the race but it has just come as a surprise. I told my compatriot to pray before competing and God has really worked for us,” Kiplagat told Daily Sport.

For his part, Kibet said: “Winning bronze medal was not and this is a good start for my career. I wanted to be on the podium and we had planned to push the pace in turns and it worked. We saw yesterday what they did in the 3,000m race and we couldn’t allow that today. It’s great to bag a gold medal.”

Meanwhile, in the women’s 3,000m final at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, Teresiah Muthoni won the second gold for Kenya after clocking 8:57.78.

Another Kenyan Zenah Jemutai came second taking silver with a personal best of 8:59.59 while Ethiopia’s Melknat Wudu came third to take home bronze in 9:00.12.

The post Kenyan Athletes Shine at World U-20 Championships appeared first on LitKenya.

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