Habari za Wiki - 9 February, 2021

Kenya Cross Country Weekend 

Joan arriving at Voi for the race (notice that T-shirt...?)

This Saturday, Athletics Kenya will host the Kenyan National Athletics championship at the Ngong Race Course. The Cross country is a culmination of all Cross Country competitions that took place across Kenya including Kenya Prisons, Kenya Police and Kenya Defence Forces championships. Expect Kibiwott Kandie, Geoffrey Kamworor, Hellen Obiri at the event which will be used to select the team to represent Kenya at the Africa Cross Country Championships 6 - 7 March in Lomé, Togo.  

Our very own Enda Elite Joan Cherop emerged the winner of the 10km Coast Region Cross-Country Championship at Dawson Mwanyumba Stadium in Wundanyi on Saturday. Joan far outpaced the competition by running 36:08.50, three minutes ahead of competition, to win the women's title and book for herself a slot at the Kenyan National Cross Country championships this weekend. 

With the uncertainty of global athletics events taking place, this might be the edition where Kenya sends her strongest team led by Geoffrey Kamworor to the continental event. Not that Kenya has performed badly previously. Infact Kenya has dominated past competition making it a little ‘boring and predictable.’ However, no one can deny that a team with global stars like Kandie/Kamworor team in Lome will really give the Africa Cross Country Championship the boost it badly needs.

Joan’s certificate from winning the Coast Region Cross Country Championship

RAK Cancelled

A Hellen Obiri half marathon debut, a Geoffrey Kamworor comeback. Possible world half marathon records. All these have been put on hold. The much hyped RAK Half Marathon scheduled for the 19 Feb has been postponed to 2022. Disappointing as it may be the health and safety of all is paramount. And it does mean Obiri and Kamworwor can focus on the cross country this weekend. 

Beatrice to take on Sifan in Lievin tonight.

3000m steeplechase world record holder Beatrice Chepkoech is back on track tonight hoping for her second indoor victory at the  Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais in Lievin, France. 

This is the second World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting of 2021 and Beatrice will line up against the reigning 1500m/10,000m world champion Sifan Hassan. This will be quite a show since Sifan has beaten Beatrice three times in their four meetings. The 3000m women's race will be at 22:50 East Africa Time / 14:50 Eastern US and you can watch the indoor action in Lievin on the World Athletics YouTube Channel.

Non-Kenyan news

Danish sprinter eyeing World Under-20 gold in Nairobi 

Danish young sprinter Tazana Kamanga is training in Kenya under former sprinter Peter Gatana. Kamanga, a former rugby player hopes moving his training camp in Kenya will spur him to win the 100m and 200m at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships scheduled for August 17-22 at Moi Stadium, Kasarani.  

From Us At Enda

 New Lapatets

We’ve got a new color of Lapatet for you today: Batian Glacier and LightBlue.

They’re inspired by the colors of the peak of Mt. Kenya. And like all our colors, they’re limited edition.

Handover to National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

From Black Friday to Giving Tuesday 2020, we came together to give a little more to others. 116 of you took part in our campaign and we raised Ksh 248,000 (USD 2,264) for the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission of Kenya.

We handover your contribution to Annmarie (Centre) and Diane (Right). Once again, we cannot thank you enough for making this happen. We’re inspired by this community and hope we can all keep making even greater impact together.

From The Enda Community

Anders Narita shared this pic of his new Kambu Lapatets on Instagram saying:

“I really love that @endasportswear sends me Kenyan newspapers with their shoes.”

Thanks Anders! We started doing that to reduce waste. Rather than using tissue paper, we started intercepting old newspapers that were headed to landfill and used those for packing our shoes. Just a little way to make a difference, but a big way to add more flavor to our packaging!

If you’re having fun in your Enda gear, make sure to tag us @EndaSportswear so we can share your adventures with the rest of the community!