By OUR CORRESPONDENT
Team Kenya will have to wait a bit longer for medals at the ongoing Paralympic Games in Paris after the country’s main hopes John Lokedi and Wesley Sang faltered in their athletics final at the Stade de France on Saturday.
The standards also proved high for Kenya’s javelin thrower Sheila Wanyonyi as she finished ninth in her final at the Stade de France.
Lokedi was the first on track in the men’s 5,000metres T13 final, a category for the partially blind athletes.
Lokedi kept touch with the leading pack for the better part of the race but started running out of gas in the last three laps to finish a distant sixth in 16 minutes and 10.06 seconds.
It’s Yassine Ouhdadi from Spain, who dropped the pack with two laps to go to retain his title in 15:50.64, edging out neutral nationality athletes Aleksandr Kostin and Anton Kuliatin to silver and bronze medals in 15:52.36.
Ouhdadi holds the 2019 Paris and 2024 Japan world titles over the category.
Despite not making it to the podium, Lokedi said that he drew positives from Paris, which was his maiden Paralympics.
“The race went quite fine regardless of the results. It was a learning venture for me as I treat the drawing board,” said Lokedi. “I kept tab with the leading pack and I guess the kick in the last 800m failed me.”
To compete at such a high level, Lokedi said that there is need for more time in training besides the provision of good facilities.
“We only trained on a good tartan track in France away from the murram track in Kapsabet. But again, it’s good to face such a quality field to know your weaknesses and mistakes,” said Loekdi, who hopes to come back stronger next year for the World Para Athletics Championships scheduled for March in Dubai.
Lokedi said that it will be vital for the country to take more athletes for the world events that will be used as qualifiers for the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics.
“The more the numbers, the higher the chances of getting medals,” said Lokedi, who also advised para sports managers in the country to draw more talent to para sports. “I was the only one in the 5,000m T13 yet we have many youth who can be drawn to the sport,” explained Lokedi.
Sang, expressed his disappointment after finishing a distant 12th in 4:07.92 in men’s 1,500m T46 where neutral nationality athlete Aleksandr Laremchuk won gold in 3:50.24, adding to his world title from Kobe.
Laremchuk edged out Australia Michael Roeger and Antoine Praud of France to second and third places in 3:51.19 and 3:51.37 respectively.
“I started losing balance after two laps and couldn’t inject pace only to realise at the end of the race that some nails had come off my spikes a” said a dejected Sang, who now shifts focus to next year’s world championships.
Wanyonyi, who finished ninth out of 10 in javelin T12/T13 said it’s not the results she expected. Yuping Zhao won in a new World Record of 47.06metres, beating her own previous distance of 46m from the 2019 world championships.
“But I am humbled to compete at the Paralympics for the first time,” said Wanyonyi, adding that they need resources in terms of facilities and advanced training to match their rivals.
“I take this as a lesson and challenge myself to do better next time through self belief too,” said Wanyonyi.
