Kenya venture into 35km walk race, eyes on bigger squad for Tokyo World Championships

Race walk coach George Kariuki has set his sights on shoring Team Kenya’s numbers at the 2025 Tokyo World Championships by focusing on long-distance races, particularly the 35km event.

Kariuki highlighted a shift in focus from the traditional 20km race to the longer 35km as crucial for enhancing Kenya’s medal prospects on the global stage.

“We want our athletes to diversify and participate in the 35km as opposed to running in the 20km only,” Kariuki said.

With Tokyo 2025 on the horizon, Kariuki is training some of Kenya’s top race walkers to tackle the extended distance, aiming to forge a strong lineup for the championships.

“Early preparation is key. We are focusing on ensuring that our athletes build the endurance needed for 35km, which will allow us to field a formidable team,” he said.

The qualifying standard for the 35km race at the World Championships is set at 2:28:00 for men and 2:48:00 for women.

Among the talents he is grooming are Emily Ngii, Sylvia Kemboi, Dominic Ndigiti, Stephen Ndangiri and Heristone Wanyonyi.

Ngii, a two-time African 20km race walk champion, is among Kenya’s most decorated female walkers, with gold at the 2022 African Championships and a bronze in the 10,000m at the Birmingham Commonwealth games the same year.

Kemboi is the 2022 national champion in the 20km race and a runners up during the national championships held in May, clocking 1:41:43 behind Ngii (1:40:30).

Ndigiti is the 2019 African Under-20 10,000m race walk champion and the 2017 World U-18 10,000m race walk bronze medallist.

Wanyonyi won gold in the 10,000m race walk at the 2021 World U-20 Championships held in Nairobi.

Ndangiri represented the country at the 2024 World U-20 championships in Lima, Peru, finishing outside the medal bracket in position nine (40:37.54).

Kariuki pointed to the need for Kenya to rise to the occasion in major competitions.

“We have to push our way, there are no two ways about it. When it comes to major championships, we have to be at a level to compete with the other nations,” he said.

He was quick to highlight the plight of the race walk event as most athletes tend to focus more on track and road races, which are more lucrative.

“Kenya has many athletes, most of them tend to lean more on track and road running events which have more money.”

“Most of our young athletes, who should develop from the track and go to the marathons are jumping straight to the marathon because it is lucrative. That is not good development,” he said.

While acknowledging the challenges, Kariuki said World Athletics is working to increase race walking’s appeal with prize-paying invitationals.

“Race walking does not have a lot of competition globally. However World Athletics is creating competitive competitions which are mainly by invitation and have payment for winners to attract more athletes,” he said.

To strengthen Kenya’s presence, he is also pushing for 2019 African champion Samuel Gathimba to compete in Dublin in December, hoping it will secure his spot in the 20km event for the World Championships.

“Gathimba is close to qualifying for the World Championships. We have requested for a slot at an invitational event in Dublin to help him secure his ticket in the 20km race,” Kariuki  said.

The 20km race walk entry standard for Tokyo is set at 1:19:20.

Gathimba’s quickest time this year is 1:21:26, set during the Paris Olympics where he finished 22nd.

Kariuki said an injury in Paris slowed down Gathimba quashing his chances of making the podium and attaining the World Championship qualification.

“Gathimba was well prepared for the Paris Olympics. Even during the competition he was doing really well up to the 17km mark, where he tripped at a sloppy turning point,”  Kariuki said.

“As a result, he suffered a slight dislocation of the ankle. That made him slow down. He was within reaching distance of the medal bracket at that point. He was in position six (which was within our plan) before tripped,” he said.

The tactician called on well-wishers to support Gathimba in his pursuit of qualifying for the World Championships in Dublin.

“The federation does not have adequate funds to take athletes to competitions to attain the World Championship qualification. We are looking for sponsors to come in and support Gathimba,” he said.