President Uhuru Kenyatta has congratulated Vivian Cheruiyot after she bagged silver in the women ‘s 10,000m in the Olympic Game.
“Congratulations Cheruiyot for winning silver and breaking the National record,” Uhuru said via twitter on Saturday.
The president further congratulated other athletes and an Ethiopian who qualified to go to the next rounds in the Olympics.
“Good performance by the male athletes in the 800m heats, congratulations for qualifying for the semis,” the president said.
“Well run Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia. Truly deserved World record.”
Kenyan’s Cheruiyot bagged silver as Ethiopian Almaz Ayana won the race in a new world record of 29:17.25 in the women race.
DP William Ruto who is at the Rio de Janeiro, said “Cheruiyot’s second place finish in the women’s 10,000 metres final herald the start of our medal hunt.”
Ruto had traveled to Brazil to offer his support to the athletes.
Kenyan’s Cheruiyot bagged silver as Ethiopian Almaz Ayana won the race in a new world record of 29:17.25 in the women race.
The former world record of 29:31.78 held by Chinese Wang Junxia has been in existence for the last 23 years, having been set on September 8, 1993.
Cheruiyot bagged silver in a national record of 29:32.53 while Olympic champion Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba settled for bronze in 29:42.56 in the games at Joao Havalenge Olympic Stadium
More on this: Vivian Cheruiyot bags silver as Ethiopia’s Ayana wins 10,000m in record time
Early Friday, world 800m record holder David Rudisha led compatriots Ferguson Rotich and Alfred Kipketer into the semis of their specialty off the heats this afternoon as the 2016 Olympic Games track and field programme started.
Rudisha clocked the fastest time off heat 3 – 1:45.09 as he started his title defence in style, relegating South African Rynardt van Rensburg (1:45.67) and Great Britain’s Michael Rimmer (1:45.99) to the lesser automatic qualification slots.
The lanky Kenyan produced a fine front-running display and was on a roll with almost a second over his closest challenger at the death.
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