Inzikuru axed from national team

By Norman Katende

FORMER World and Commonwealth steeplechase champion Dorcus Inzikuru has been dropped from the national senior women’s team to the IAAF World Cross Country.

The biennial event is due Sunday in Bydgoszcz, Poland.Linnet Chebet, who finished eighth at the national cross country in Jinja but had a good reaction at the national team’s training in Bukwo, has taken over Inzikuru’s slot.

Despite finishing third in the national cross country championships in Jinja last month, Inzikuru was dropped for her failure to show up in camp. She had been granted permission to report late to enable her travel to Tripoli, Libya for a 10km road run, where she finished eighth.

It has emerged that Inzikuru apparently picked an injury which meant she could not proceed to the national team camp in Bukwo. 

Matters were further complicated because she could not travel to Nairobi for her Polish visa biometrics.

Adero Nyakisi, who had been given a wild card to the cross country team despite not taking part at the national event, was also left out of the final women’s team list that was released yesterday.

The junior and senior men team lists were yet to be finalised due to technicalities on documentations. 

“She is not on the team. The technical committee felt that it was better off to take on those athletes that have been monitored as per the standards set last year. She did not make it to the camp and so she was dropped,” said athletics federation secretary Beatrice Ayikoru.

The teams

Junior women:

Shanice Chemutai, Stella Chesang, Rachael Hawks

Senior women:

Chekwel, Rebecca Cheptegei, Janet Achola and Linnet Chebet.