Kenya will field four race walkers at the Irish Race Walking Marathon Olympic Trials in Dublin, Ireland as they seek to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
Team leader Joseph Ochieng said four will compete in the newly introduced race walk mixed relay on June 22.
The race walk mixed relay will feature at the Olympics for the first time. The team will be coached by veteran coach George Kariuki.
Ochieng confirmed that All-African Games silver medalist Samuel Gathimba will team up with African Games champion Emily Ngii while Former Africa Under-20 champion Dominic Ndigiti will team up with Africa championship bronze medallist, Sylvia Kemboi.
Gathimba has already qualified for the Olympics while Ngii, Ndigiti and Kemboi are chasing Olympic qualifying standards.
Ngii would have qualified for the Olympics in Accra, Ghana during the All African Games but there were issues with lap scoring.
Teams of a man and a woman will complete the marathon distance in legs of 12.195km (man), 10km (woman), 10km (man) and 10km (woman).
Ochieng further said they have recommended 2021 world Under-20 champion Heristone Wanyonyi, Dominic Mwenda, Africa Under 20 bronze medallist Stephen Ndangili and Margaret Gati to try their luck at the Senior Africa Athletics Championships to be held in Doula Cameroon in a fortnight.
“In Dublin, we shall only take relay teams and that’s why the rest of the athletes who were in the team for World Race Walking Championships in Antalya, Turkey will go to Cameroon to try and qualify from there,” added Ochieng’ who is a World Athletics (WA) race walk judge.
The team was supposed to compete for Olympic qualification at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya, Turkey, on April 21 but failed to make it due to a lack of a transit visa via Cyprus. This forced the team to return to the country from Ercan International Airport via Istanbul aboard a Turkish Airlines flight.
