Gathimba leads Team Kenya for Caixa World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Brazil

Samuel Gathimba in action during a past event/HANDOUT

‎Three-time African Championships 20km race walk champion Samuel Gathimba will lead Team Kenya to the Caixa World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Brasília 26.

The event will be held at the Brazilian capital on April 12 and has drawn 333 athletes from 40 countries. This marks the first time the event has taken place in South America and the Southern Hemisphere.

Gathimba will lead the team of 10, six men and four women, for the event. Team manager Joseph Ochieng said the team was selected on merit. “We considered their performance over the past year. We are confident they will do well and represent the country well,” said Ochieng.

Other members of the men’s team are Stephen Ndangiri, Felix Kipkemoi, Stephen Kihu, Peter Theuri, and former World U20 gold medalist Heristone Wanyonyi. They will all represent the country in a half-marathon race. 

The women’s team comprises Africa Championship bronze medallist Sylvia Kemboi, Naum Jepkirui, Carren Simiyu, and Marceline Nanjala. Nanjala will compete in the 10km U20 race, while the rest will take part in the half-marathon.

Ochieng asked athletes who did not make it for the Brazil event to continue training for the Africa Championship to be held from May 12–17 in Accra, Ghana.

The competition will feature 114 women and 140 men competing in the new standard senior race walking distances – half marathon and marathon – for the first time at a World Athletics Series event.

Meanwhile, 39 women and 40 men will compete in the U20 10km races. The men’s half-marathon entries are led by world 20km champion Caio Bonfim, who headlines the host nation’s team.

Competing on home roads in Brasília, he will take on two-time world champion Toshikazu Yamanishi of Japan, as well as the top three from the 20km at the last edition of these championships— Sweden’s multiple world medallist Perseus Karlström, Spain’s world bronze medallist Paul McGrath and his compatriot Diego García Carrera.

The men’s marathon field is also packed with global medallists. Canada’s world 35km champion Evan Dunfee lines up alongside Italy’s 2021 Olympic 20km champion and 35km world record-holder Massimo Stano, Japan’s world 35km bronze medallist Hayato Katsuki and multiple German record-holder Christopher Linke.

In the women’s half-marathon, Peru’s 2022 double world champion Kimberly García leads the entries. She will face Poland’s Katarzyna Zdzieblo, who claimed world silver at both distances behind Garcia in 2022, and Spanish champion Antia Chamosa.