Kipruto set to step up ‘steeplechase’ ladder

Korir wins 1st title

NAIROBI, June 24, (AFP): Kenya’s Olympic 3,000 metres steeplechase champion Conseslus Kipruto feels victory at this year’s world championships in London would cement his place as one of the distance greats.

The 22-year-old, twice gold medallist in 2013 in Moscow and in Beijing in 2015, said he’s ready to step up the ladder as the next dominant after compatriot and four-time world champion Ezekiel Kemboi.

“This time I want to change the way I have been running at the world championships,” said Kipruto, after his victory at the Kenyan national trials at the Nyayo National stadium on Saturday.

“Having won the Olympics, I now have the course. I want to be is a world champion and the take the mantle from Kemboi.”

Kipruto will however have the 2007 world champion Brimin Kipruto to contend with in London after the resurgent 2008 Olympic champion fought his way to qualify for his seventh career championship in London with a secondplace finish.

Two-time Diamond League winner Jairus Kipchoge Birech finished third in 8:20.01 to complete the three-man line-up.

American National Collegiate 800-metre champion Emmanuel Korir upset a strong field to win his first Kenyan title in an impressive time of 1:43.86.

Korir finished well clear of the Shanghai Diamond League winner Kipyegon Bett and fellow USbased Michael Saruni, who took second and third place respectively in 1:44.04 and 1:44.61.

National champion Ferguson Rotich was relegated into fourth, but was included in the world championship squad by virtue of being the 2016 Diamond League champion.