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Kenya’s women athletes have stepped up their training ahead of the Olympic Games to be held in Beijing.
Although after failing to win any medal for the country at previous Olympic Games, women’s 3000 steeplechase runners, Veronica Nyaruai, Ruth Bosibori and Eunice Jepkorir, want to change history by winning medals which have eluded them in the past.
Nyaruai, who made her name as a junior prodigy, winning numerous honors, will lead other compatriots in Beijing.
“Initially, my jumping style was poor but after a bit of practice and mastering, I am getting it well,” Nyaruai told the local Daily Nation newspaper.
Nyaruai set a personal best of 9:03.01 for 3,000m when she finished second to Priscah Cherono during the Confederation of Africa Athletics meeting in Nairobi.
Her time of 8:52.9 during the 2005 national world youth trials was the prelude to her victory in the world youth title in Marrakech, Morocco (9:01.61).
Keen on bagging the elusive medal, Nyaruai has vowed to improve on her jumping skills. Also in the team is world junior champion, Ruth Bosibori, who used to run barefoot even on tartan tracks regardless of the weather, and, started running in 2003 while in Form Two.
The 20-year-old Bisobori was inspired to take up the sport by Commonwealth Games 5,000m champion Isabella Ochichi and four-time Boston Marathon winner and former world record holder, Catherine Ndereba.
“I heard much about the two and wanted just to be like them one day,” she said. The last born in family of two brothers and one sister, Bosibori ran the 5,000m, 10,000m and steeplechase, the event she excelled at most, while studying at Kebirichi Secondary School in Masaba District.
Victory in last year’s All Africa Games in Algiers, helped her form a winning formula. With a world leading time of 9:11.18, 26-year old Eunice Jepkorir completes trio’s team.
During the Bislett Games in Oslo last year, she broke the Kenyan record after clocking 9:19.44.
Two weeks later, Jepkorir set a new African and Commonwealth record of 9:14.52. Uganda’s Inzikuru held the previous record of 9:15.04. Last month in Huelva, Spain, she bettered her African record to 9:11.18.
(Source: en.beijing2008.cn)
Linhai City, under the jurisdiction of Taizhou, is situated in the central part of Zhejiang Province, bordering Ningbo City to the north, Jinhua City to the west, Wenzhou City to the south and facing the China East Sea to the east. The city has a land area of 2,203 square kilometers and a sea area of 1,819 square kilometers.
Linhai City is among the first batch of open coastal cities, national historical and cultural cities and national sanitary cities approved by the State Council, the birthplace of joint-stock economy in China, and a land transportation pivot, a center of culture, education and sanitation and a city that combines beautiful scenery south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and modern prosperity.
Linhai has a long history and boasts numerous historic sites. It was inhabited by human beings as early as in the Neolithic Age and was established as a county in the 2nd year (85BC) of the Shiyuan reign of the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD). Ever since the Jin Dynasty (265-420), it has been the seat of Taizhou Prefecture and site of prefectural government. With city walls, street blocks, temples and tower groups here and there, the city preserves much antique flavor, and its Taizhou prefectural city wall and Taozhu City are listed as the key cultural relics sites under the state protection. Historically renowned persons like Zheng Yu, Luo Binwang, Wang Shixing and Qi Jiguang, etc., were born in Linhai, and many of their relics can still be found today in the city.
Linhai has enchanting natural scenery, especially its mountain and water scenic spots. Its provincially protected Taozhu Tourist Resort was reputed as Fairy Kingdom on the Sea. Besides, its provincially protected Niutou Mountain Resort and Cangshan Mountain, the No.1 Pinnacle in Southeast Zhejiang Province, etc., attract countless tourists all year round.
The city enjoys an amiable climate and rich products. Linhai was conferred with the title of the Town of Stone-Free Mandarin Orange by the Commission of Special Products.
(Source: chinaculture.org)
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