Reigning 10,000m World record holder Beatrice Chebet and 2024 Ras Al Khaimah half marathon champion Daniel Mateiko will lead team Kenya in 10,000m at the 31st Olympic Games set for Paris, France, between July 26th and August 11th this year.
Chebet will team up with Lillian Kasait and Margaret Chelimo, while Mateiko will combine with Bernard Kibet and Nicholas Kimeli in this year’s games. They were selected last month for the for the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League.
Chebet, who has been in tip-top form, successfully defended her World Cross Country title in Belgrade, Serbia, in March of this year before breaking the world record by becoming the 1st woman to run sub-29 minutes in the 25-lap race and will be making her debut at the Summer Olympic Games.
At the age of 31, Margaret Chelimo, who won a bronze medal in 10,000 m at the 2022 World Athletics Championships before bagging a silver in 5,000 m at the last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, will also be making her maiden appearance at the Olympic Games alongside Lillian Kasait.
Mateiko, who has also been in top form, will be appearing at the summer games for the first time, while Kibet will also be flying the Kenyan flag at the quadrennial games for the first time, similar to Kimeli, who, despite having competed at the World Championships several times, finished 8th in the Budapest World Championship.
The team, which was named by Athletics Kenya on Thursday, was selected during the national trials at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League in the USA on May 25th last month.
