By John Kwoba
NAIROBI, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Olympic 3,000m steeplechase champion Conseslus Kipruto of Kenya will hunt for two birds with one stone as he returns to Ostrava Golden Spike meeting on June 28 in Czech Republic.
Kipruto, who holds a silver medal from Beijing World Championships two years ago, will lead a horde of Kenyan elite runners to the meeting, which is part of the IAAF World Challenge.
"My training this season is geared towards winning the World championships in London. However, I have hopes of trying to break the world record in Ostrava and am really working hard towards that goal," he said Tuesday from Eldoret.
Kipruto holds a personal best of 8:00.12 and it's in Brussels where Kenyan-born Qatari Saif Saaeed Shaheen, formerly Stephen Cherono, set a World Record in 2004 of 7:53.63.
But Kipruto believes he has the physique and inspiration to shutter the world record and writes his own history as a true legend of the water and barrier race.
"The World Record has been on my mind since winning the Olympic gold medal," he said.
It will be the first time that men's steeplechase race will be returning on the programme of the 56th Ostrava Golden Spike meeting since 2013 and the Kenyans hope they will strike hot to set fast times.
Four years ago, a younger Kipruto won and this year he will return as Olympic champion. Organisers are hoping for a fast race possibly eclipsing the meet record of Paul Kipsiele Koech 8:02.55 from 2011.
Kipruto, who launched his career in a choking field of steeplechasers back in 2011, still remembers how he failed to make the Olympic 2012 team, which he believes inspired him to excel in successive seasons.
"I had easily won the junior trials and I believed I had a chance to make the Olympic team. However, during the last two laps of the final at Olympic Trials I lost all energy and finished sixth. I couldn't understand how I had not made the team and I cried for most of the rest of the day. I bounced back by winning the world U20 title the next month in a championship record of 8:06," he said.
Now eyes will be on the Kenyan as he seeks to launch a new chapter in his cruise to inherit the throne vacated by his mentor and harshest critic Ezekiel Kemboi. Enditem
