Kip Keino starts Chemusto’s long route to Budapest

Following some decent shifts in 2022, Janat Chemusto is hoping for her career best year after returning to join the Global Sports Communication (GSC).

She returned to the Dutch-managed camp in Kapchorwa after a short spell with Rosa Associati group comprising Jacob Kiplimo among other runners under coach Peter Chelangat.

The middle-distance runner Chemusto last year narrowly missed the podium over the 1500m and 5000m events but she was encouraged to finish the year with victory over 10km at the Kampala Marathon.

After five months of work with coach Addy Ruiter in a group which has Joshua Cheptegei, Chemusto will start her season in the 1500m field at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday.

“Her progress is sensational since she joined us and she can improve more,” said Ruiter. “The first races are to get confidence while she is performing for the first time in her career on the highest level,” he said.

Chemusto first broke onto the athletics scene as a teenager at the 2014 Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China before winning double bronze over the 1500m and 3000m at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Apia, Samoa the following year.

In Nairobi, understandably at the high altitude at Kasarani Stadium, Chemusto’s first task is to lower her personal best time of four minutes and 15.90 which she set in Mandela Stadium in Namboole back in 2018.

And if that happens, it will offset her quest to beat the qualifying standard of 4:03.50 to the Budapest World Championships due August in Hungary.       

The 1500m race will also have Winnie Nanyondo, who will have pace setting duties to carry out, according to her manager Jurrie van der Velden.

Kip Keino has attracted a classic field especially in the sprints, with double Olympic champion Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and American Sha’Carri Richardson entered and so is world javelin champion Andersen Peters of Grenada.

UGANDANS IN ACTION - SATURDAY

Kip Keino Classic: Janat Chemusto, Winnie Nanyondo (1500m)