Kenyan stars Isaac Songok and Augustine Choge quit cross cross country
Posted Wednesday, 20 December, 2006
Kenya’s future in the World Cross Country Championships has taken another beating with the exit of top runners Isaac Songok and Augustine Choge from the sport.
Only a week after Mike Kigen, who was fifth in this year’s global event in Japan, said he won’t be running in next year’s edition in Mombasa due to an injury.
Songok, reigning 4km silver medallist, and Choge, 8km champion last year in France, said they have quit cross country running.
"With the scrapping of the 4km races, we have to make the painful decision to quit cross country altogether and concentrate on the track," Bro Colm O’Connell, who coaches the two told SportFest in Iten at the weekend.
The world athletics ruling body, International Association of Athletics Federations scrapped the short course races from its World Cross Country Championships programme.
Kenya has not won the 12km individual title since Paul Tergat’s fifth straight title in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1999.
"It is sad that I won’t go a step further and win a world cross country title after the bronze in France last year and silver in Japan this year," said Songok, 22.
Choge, 18, won the world junior title last year in St Galmier, France, and added a Commonwealth Games 5,000m title early this year in Melbourne, Australia.
"We shall concentrate on 1,500m and 5,000m in the future. But cross country is out of the question," said Bro Colm, who has nurtured many talented athletes including Kenyan-born American, Bernard Lagat, the 2004 Olympics 1,500 silver medallist and Japheth Kimutai, the 1,500m 1998 Commonwealth Games champion.
"We’ll have to train hard to fi t in the 12km race, which may jeopardise our chances of doing well in (World Championships) Osaka," he said.
Songok’s 7:28 in Rieti was the fastest time over 3,000m this year. His 12:48 in Zurich was also the season’s second fastest, behind Ethiopia’s multiple winner, Kenenisa Bekele. Choge stunned Australian Craig Mottram before his home crowd to win the Commonwealth title and won several 1,500m races in Heusden, Zurich and Berlin.
He beat Bekele in the Shanghai invitational race after finishing third in the final Grand Prix in Stuttgart.
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