Asbel Kiprop in the 3000m at the 14th edition of the Mauritius International Meet (© Clyde KOA WING)
Once in a while Kenya produces a 1500 metres runner who takes the world by storm. But it has taken seven long years to discover a natural heir apparent to the legacy Noah Ngeny left at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Ngeny left as fast as he came in part due to injury. Now the man Kenya has primed for better days ahead depending on how he is nurtured is Asbel Kiprop, the World Junior Cross Country champion and winner of the recent 1500 metres at the All Africa Games.
With only two blemishes to his growing reputation, recorded in the Athens and Lausanne legs of this year’s IAAF World Athletics Tour, Kiprop who is 18-years-old has already settled smoothly into senior track competition winning the usually explosive Kenya trials at altitude in 3:35.5.
Kenya has only won three silver medals at the Worlds in the 1500m through Wilfred Kirochi (1991), Ngeny (1999) and Bernard Lagat (2001), and while Osaka might be too soon to predict medals for Kiprop but he presently looks to be Kenya’s greatest hope for 1500m success in the coming decade. Even Ngeny predicts that whether he finishes on the podium or not in Osaka, that Kiprop is well placed for Beijing next year and if well nurtured could be an Olympic champion in 2012 in either the 1500 or 5000m.
"I cannot say I am going to win in Osaka," said the lanky Kiprop who quit high school to concentrate in athletics. "I am always running and learning and I have a long way to go both as a junior but more so in senior competition."
Kiprop who hails from Simat area, only 10km west of Eldoret town, Kenya's athletics granary has one big advantage, as he has access to facilities and opponents who are both an inspiration as well as a gauge as to whether he has what it takes.
His first challenge is to bridge the gap between him and the best this year. His PB of 3:35.81 he posted in Athens is still by far slower than the season leading 3:30.54 of Alan Webb of the USA.
"I am aware of this but Osaka is not the place where I can say I will go for any record. I cannot even predict on whether I will in any way win."
Kiprop did however intimate that he was in good shape and having been warned that the weather will be very hot, he was one of the least worried having endured the hot and humid conditions in Mombasa when winning the World Junior Cross last March.
Peter Njenga (Kenya Times) for the IAAF
