Kenya: Chepngeno Remains Grounded as She Pursues Pathway to Budapest World Championships

Nairobi — Houston Half Marathon champion Vicoty Chepngeno says she is remaining grounded as she aims to reclaim her winning attitude after recent spate of disappointments.

Chepngeno said she has remained disciplined and obedient to her coach as she works hard towards achieving her dreams on the track for this year.

"For me, the far I have come I can say is as a result of hard work in training and adhering to the coach's training programme. There is not much to it but to remain disciplined and obey what the coach is telling you," Chepngeno, who trains in Iten, said.

It has been a rough start to the year for the 2019 Monterrey Bay Half Marathon champion who began her campaign with a seventh-place finish at the Valencia Ibercaja 10km race in January.

She did not fare any better at the Tokyo Marathon in March where she failed to finish in the women's race.

The 29-year-old was, however, all-smiles over the weekend when she timed 33:27.4 to win the women's 10,000m at the 6th Athletics Kenya Track and Field Weekend Meeting at the Moi International Sports Centre Kasarani.

Chepngeno was dominant in the 25-lap race, crossing the finish line ahead of Central Rift's Roselidah Jepketer (33:34.7) and North Rift's Antonina Kwambai (34:02.3) who finished second and third respectively.

Speaking of her victory, she described it as a sign of better things to come as she aims to translate the success to the international level.

"Maybe, the next stop will be the World Championships in August (Budapest). The last time I was in the national team was in 2009 when I competed in the African Junior Championships (in Mauritius) ...that was quite a long time back," Chepngeno, who finished fourth in the women's 1500m at the championships. All that is required for me is to work hard as I've been doing and sure enough, there's a huge chance for me to be there (at World Championships)," said.

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