Joseph Okal finally managed to beat his toughest competition, John Paul, the top seeded Kenya Triathlete.
Okal, the second born to Olympia Keino who is the daughter of Kenyan legendary athlete -Kipchoge Keino, will be among the four athletes who will fly the Kenyan Triathlon flag at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom later in July.
After losing the last four outings to John Paul, Okal finally managed to beat his fiercest challenger during the Kenya Triathlon Federation (KTF) national trials held over the weekend at the Karen WaterFront.
Another upset was also in the women’s race where top seed Josette Njeri came a distant fourth in the elite women’s race.
Josette, a medical student at the University of Nairobi was beaten by Megan Irungu though she will join her on a trip to Birmingham having qualified on a wild card for virtue of being top seeded player, same as John Paul.
Josette who is still recovering from a hip injury she sustained in a bike crash last January came a distant third though she still made the cut on a wild card.
According to KTF president, Joyceline Nyambura, the federation will now hand over the team to National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K).
“Two athletes (John Paul and Josette) had a wild card so that means that we’ll take the top finishers in each category to make a team of four,” added Nyambura who was elected the federation’s boss last weekend.
This means that Aisha Nassar who finished second will not make the team.
Kenya will also send two paratriathletes to the Birmingham Games set for between July 28 and August 8.
The federation used the same event to pick the team for Youth African Games (YAG) to be staged in Cairo later in the year.
The squad is made up of Trevor Mwanisi and Joshua Okal, younger brother to Jesse.
Utilities
Squad
Men
Jesse Okal
John Paul
Women
Meghan Irungu
Jossette Njeri
Para Triathletes
James Njoroge (para) Ted Mwatha (Guide )
Juliet Muema Gloria Kisiangani (guide)
Youth Africa Games squad
Trevor Mwanisi
Joshua Okal
Kelly Ayodi
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