Namwamba explains government's plans for Faith Kipyegon after her third world record

ATHLETICS Namwamba explains government's plans for Faith Kipyegon after her third world record

Abigael Wafula 12:30 - 29.07.2023

The state is looking at rewarding the triple world record holder further following her exploits in Monaco a week ago

Two-time world 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon is yet to be awarded her prize money for breaking the mile world record at the Diamond League Meeting in Monaco last week.

Kipyegon cruised to the finish line and clocked 4:07.64 to completely destroy Sifan Hassan’s world record time of 4:12.33 that she had set on the same track in 2019.

As promised by the Ministry of Sports, any athlete who breaks a world record was to be awarded Ksh5 million and they will also benefit from the affordable housing programme to live in dignified habitats.

However, the two-time Olympic champion is yet to be awarded for her record-breaking dominant performance in Monaco and Sports CS Ababu Namwamba has given the reason why.

We are waiting for Faith to have time and then we will be doing something with her,” CS Namwamba said.

Kipyegon had earlier been awarded Ksh5 million and a house for her dominant exploits which saw her break the 1,500m and 5,000m world records at the Diamond League Meetings in Florence and Paris respectively.

Meanwhile, Namwamba also noted that the new reward scheme for athletes is already in place and they are just awaiting President William Ruto to launch it.

For those athletes who do well now, we shall apply the new scheme…just like we did with Faith Kipyegon," he added. 

"For others like Beatrice Chepkoech, we applied the old scheme since her world record came before the new one. The revised scheme is already done and we are just waiting for the President to launch it."