The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
World beater’s helping hand for charity
Athletics: Kipsang lends support to foundation
The 2012 Olympic marathon bronze medallist and former world record holder Wilson Kipsang arrives in Aberdeen today to complete his preparations for next weekend’s Tokyo marathon.
The Kenyan athlete is travelling to the Granite City to support the work of a children’s charity, the Gathimba Edwards Foundation, and to share his knowledge and expertise with local runners.
The charity was set up by Aberdeen athlete Myles Edwards, along with another leading East African athlete, Gideon Gathimba, a fewyears ago, and is dedicated to helping disadvantaged children in Kenya.
Gathimba, who was part of a Kenyan quartet that set a 4x1500m relay world record in 2009, is also coming to Aberdeen this weekend.
He will be joined by a third former world record holder, Great Britain Olympian Dave Moorcroft, the Coventry runner who in 1982 set a world 5,000m best of 13min 00.41sec, a time which survived as the British record until 2012 when Mo Farah broke it.
Edwards has persuaded all three to come and they will attend a fundraising dinner for the charity on Saturday evening, but will also be involved with a number of other local events.
Kipsang will stop-off in the north-east for a few days before flying on to Japan where he hopes to make an assault on the marathon world best of 2:02:57 set by his compatriot Dennis Kimetto at Berlin in 2014.
Edwards said: “I am thrilled Wilson, Gideon and Dave have been able to come to Aberdeen and I’m sure everyone will enjoy meeting them.
“It’s amazing Wilson is to be here as he is competing in the Tokyo marathon the following weekend. He will fly to Japan immediately after taking part in our charity events over the weekend.”
Kipsang is the former world record holder for the marathon, having clocked 2: 03: 23sec at Berlin in 2013. The previous year he was bronze medallist at the London Olympic Games.
He won the 2014 London marathon in 2:04:29 and he has run faster than 2:05:00 on six occasions and is the second fastest marathoner of all-time.
Edwards has indicated Gathimba will run in tomorrow’s Aberdeen Hazlehead parkrun 5km, but Kipsang will give it a miss as he has an important training session planned.
Edwards said: “Gideon plans t o run in the parkrun.
“He set the course record of 15min 2sec when he came over for the previous GEFd inner, in 2015, and he might be keen to break it.
“I hope Wilson will also be there to set the runners on their way, but he won’t be running. Dave has recently had a major knee operation and won’t manage to run, but he’ll also come along to lend his support.
“I might even have a run myself, but I’ll leave that as a late decision.”
The trio will also share their knowledge and expertise with local athletes and coaches on Sunday morning at Aberdeen Sports Village.
Edwards said: “They will be taking a couple of coaching sessions on Sunday morning and in the afternoon they’ll speak about their world record breaking exploits at a question and answer session.”
“Thrilled Wilson, Gideon and Dave have been able to come to Aberdeen”