Kiprotich dreaming up Olympic slot

Having qualified for the upcoming Africa Senior Athletics Championship slated for June 23 to 27 in Lagos, Nigeria, Africa javelin silver medalist, Alex Kiprotich has shifted his focus to chasing an Olympics slot when the national trials are held next month. 

The 22nd edition of the African Senior Athletics Championships initially scheduled to take place in Algiers on June 22-26 was moved to Lagos. The biennial event has been postponed twice by the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) owing to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic in the North African country.  

During the Athletics Kenya (AK) three-day Olympics pre-trials, Kiprotich managed a 77 throw to place top. However, the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) athlete believes he could comfortably manage throws of 90m and over if he was accorded the much needed support in his training.

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His last competition at a national event was during the World Athletics Continental Tour in October, 2020 where he beat seven others to carry the day with a 76.71m throw. The distance was a 2.71m improvement from his throw at the Nairobi Athletics Kenya (AK) meet at the beginning of the year before the season was disrupted. 

Despite managing only two throws in the six attempts at the Continental Tour, he managed to finish ahead of Poland's Hubert Chmielak (75.47) and Belarus' Timothy Herman (75.18).

"I have not been in action or training since competing at the continental Tour. I went for a work-related training up until March of 2021. I have had about two months of training and I am yet to pick. I, however, have a few metres to hit the qualifying distance for the Olympics and I feel with a few more competitions I would have easily hit that distance,"

"My first competition was during the KDF annual championship two weeks ago where I managed 75.46. Coming back to throw 77.18m is good for me. It shows an improvement and the cold weather during the pre-trial did not help matters. I have qualified for the Africa meet and this distance has ranked me probably in the top 40 in the Olympics rankings. I bit more improvement and I will be making the trip to Tokyo. The next three weeks will be dedicated to technique training since I can have the power but without the right technique I will not achieve much," said the athlete currently under the tutelage of Keisuke Nakajima, a Japanese national who has offered to be his coach. 

Duncan kinyanjui, who was fourth at the Continental Tour managed 69.65m at the pre-trial for second place while Bonface Kilonzo came third with a 69.04m throw. Africa and Commonwealth record holder who is also an Olympics silver medalist Julius Yego managed a 67m throw for fourth place.