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Experienced race walker Samuel Gathimba will begin the athletics programme for Kenya at the Paris 2024 Olympics with hopes of righting past mistakes.
Samuel Gathimba will be out to put Kenya on the map when the athletics programme begins at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Thursday morning.
Gathimba will feature in the 20km walk at 7.30am (Kenyan time) and will be counting on past experiences to push him through in Paris.
The 36-year-old is a three-time African champion and also won silver at the delayed 2023 African Games in March while he was at last year’s World Championships where he managed an impressive fourth place.
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Kenya’s Malkia Strikers have a daunting task against Poland but will have to up their game to avoid exiting the Paris Olympics early.
He has a personal best of 1:18:34 recorded at the World Championships but the Olympics is a different ball game where he will need a good strategy to succeed.
Kenya may be renowned for their athletics prowess but race walking is not one of them and Gathimba has the tough task of changing that with a good performance on Thursday.
“The experience I got in Rio 2016 combined with all the African championships I have won medals in will play a critical role in shaping the race I will have in Paris. I believe I have now come of age to be able to deliver in a major world event like the Olympic Games,” Gathimba, who missed the delayed 2020 Olympics, told KBC early this month.
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“I have been practicing and I feel I am not only physically prepared but also mentally to do my very best in Paris. My goal is to show Kenya and the world that walking race is just as prestigious a discipline like all the others by winning a medal in Paris.”
Gathimba had intensified his training at Kasarani Stadium before flying to Paris and is now time to put everything into action.
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