Kenyan 400m hurdler Mpoke aiming for national record

Kenyan hurdler Mpoke aiming for national record

JOHANNESBURG, May 24 (ANA) – Following his qualification for the Tokyo Olympics, Kenyan 400m hurdler Moitalel Mpoke is targeting the national record in his event.

The 20-year-old Mpoke, who is based in the United States of America (USA), has run a 48.89 Personal Best (PB) and now aims to go well under 48 seconds in pursuit of the Kenyan men’s 400m hurdles record. Boniface Mucheru holds the current record of 47.78 which he set at the Rio Olympics to claim silver.

Mpoke is a former Under-18 World Championship silver medalist in 400m hurdles and set his new PB at the South Eastern Conference Outdoor Championships in Texas, USA, on May 15 to book his Olympic ticket.

In fact, Mpoke made it to the Olympics by the narrowest of margins, dipping under the qualification time by 0.01 seconds.

Following  Hellen Syombua and Emmanuel Korir for the Olympics in their respective women’s and men’s 400m events, Mpoke is the third Kenyan sprinter to set his sights on Tokyo.

“This is just the beginning and I will not sleep until I achieve better times,” said Mpoke.

“My target is to run 47 seconds…I know it’s a tall order but quite achievable if I keep on prodding and being consistent.”

While the relatively unknown Mpoke will be elated to qualify for the Olympics, Kenyan men’s 1500m world champion Timothy Cheruiyot has yet to book his spot on the national team bound for Tokyo.

The Tokyo Olympics will be held from July 23 to August 8, and that means the pressure will be on the 2019 men’s 1500m world champion with little time left to book his spot on the Kenyan team.

Having recovered from a hamstring injury, the 25-year-old will be gunning for victory in Friday’s Diamond League athletics meeting in Doha.

It will be Cheruiyot’s first competitive outing since October 3 last year in Nairobi. – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Michael Sherman