• However, Gathimba has already secured his spot for the Olympics in the individual 20km race walk, with a time of 1:18:34 set at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, last year, where he placed ninth.
• Gathimba will aim to surpass his performance from the Rio 2016 Olympics, where he failed to finish.
Image: FILE
Kenya missed out on Olympic qualification in the race walk mixed relay after finishing second and fifth on Saturday in Dublin, Ireland.
Kenya fielded two teams in the competition. Team A featured African champion Emily Ngii and silver medallist Samuel Gathimba while Team B had Dominic Ndigiti and Sylvia Kemboi.
Ngii and Gathimba posted a time of 3:04:23, finishing behind the Czech Republic team of Vit Hlavac and Eliska Martinkova who won in a time of 3:02:09.
Alexandros Papamichail and Panagiota Tsinopoulou of Greece sealed the podium in 3:05:08 with Kazakhstan's Georgiy Sheiko and Kristina Morozova (3:07:02) in fourth.
Ndigiti and Kemboi settled for fifth place after clocking 3:12:19.
The result placed Kenya 26th overall in the ranking, just one spot shy of the Olympic cutoff mark of 25, currently held by the Czech Republic.
Kenya will have to wait until the Olympic qualification deadline of June 30 to know their fate.
However, Gathimba has already secured his spot for the Olympics in the individual 20km race walk with a time of 1:18:34 set at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, last year, where he placed ninth.
At the global show, Spain's Alvaro Martin (1:17:32), Sweden's Perseus Karlstrom (1:17:39), and Brazil's Caio Bonfim (1:17:49) secured the podium.
Gathimba will aim to surpass his performance from the Rio 2016 Olympics, where he failed to finish.
In Rio, the Chinese duo of Zhen Wang (1:19:14) and Zelin Cai (1:19:26) won gold and silver respectively with Australia's Dane Bird-Smith (1:19:37) rounding out the podium.
Gathimba will have to fend off defending champion Massimo Stano of Italy and Olympic silver medallist Koki Ikeda of Japan in Paris.
He will also contend with the podium finishers from the World Championships in Budapest.
The 2022 Asian champion Zhang Jun of China, Ecuador's Brian Pitado —a World silver medallist in the 35km race walk— and Olympic bronze medallist in the 50km race walk Evan Dunfee of Canada will also be fierce competitors.
However, Gathimba brings a rich trophy cabinet, boasting an African title from the 2019 African Games, where he clocked 1:22:48.
He also has a silver medal from the games held on March 24 in Accra, Ghana, where he clocked 1:28:06 behind Ethiopia's Misgana Fekansa (1:28:05).
Gathimba also has two gold medals from the African Championships (2018 in Asaba, Nigeria ( 1:25:14 ) and 2016 in Durban, South Africa (1:19:24).
He also boasts a bronze medal from the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, where he clocked 1:19:51.