Kiprop eyeing Commonwealth games after missing Paralympics medal narrowly

Paralympian Rodgers Kiprop is setting his eyes on the 2022 Commonwealth Games after making his maiden appearance at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics games in the 5000m-T11.

Despite a strong showing in the race, Kiprop managed a fourth-place finish after running a personal best of 15:27.06, just six seconds off a podium finish in a race that was won by Brazilian Jacques Yeltsin with Japan's pair of Karasawa Kenya and Wada Shinya settling for silver and bronze respectively.

The 28-year old is wasting no time is looking at stepping up preparations for the Commonwealth Games next year when he gets back to the country and has urged the government to ensure that they have quality training facilities.

Kiprop highlighted that he needs to work on his final kick as that is what troubled him at Tokyo on top of the harsh weather conditions.

"I want to prepare myself well for the commonwealth games next year. I will work on the areas that I have noted I need to improve on. I am going to train and make the kick better because that was my biggest letdown in Tokyo. We urge the government to ensure that we have good stadiums to train at because where I can from in Transzoia county we do not have good training facilities," Kiprop said.

The athlete who made his debut for Kenya in 2019 in the World Championship in Dubai, doubling in the 500m-T11 and 1500m-T11 thanked everyone who made the Kenya Paralympians' dream come true but at the same time called for equal treatment and facilitation as their able-bodied counterparts.

"I am thankful to everyone who facilitated our coming to Japan but at the same time, I would like to urge the government to treat us the same way they treat our able-bodied counterparts financially and logistically and get jobs when they get back with medals. I thank God for being able to take part in my first Paralympic. However, we had some issues before the race as we did not have blinders but we were helped out by the Brazilians. The weather was not very good as it was very hot and that affected my performance. It was my first Paralympics and I had some little tension," Kiprop added.

Kenya has nine athletes in Tokyo, seven in athletics, and one a-piece in powerlifting and rowing.