|
NAIROBI, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Olympic 1500m winner Faith Kipyegon of Kenya has ruled out competing in next year' s World Indoor circuit.
The 22-year-old, instead will focus her effort on improving her endurance to be able to compete favorably in the cross country circuit, which she believes will boost her performance in the season as she targets to dominate the IAAF Diamond League and the World Championships in London.
"I have not factored the indoor circuit in my plans for now. I just started my preparations for the cross country and would like to focus on it solely so that I can see how fast I can run," she said Wednesday in Nairobi.
IAAF World Indoor Tour will consist of four competitions which have regularly staged IAAF Indoor Permit meetings in previous years.
The four meetings will all be staged in February 2017. They are Karlsruhe indoor meeting (Karlsruhe, Germany), New Balance Indoor Grand Prix (Boston, USA), Globen Galan (Stockholm, Sweden), and Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix in Scotland.
The indoor tour, which will have half of the individual indoor championship disciplines as tour events each year across a two-year period, contains several innovative features, including a points system and prize money.
The individual overall winner of each event will receive 20,000 U.S. dollars in prize money. Kipyegon said her goal is to run an International cross country race in January, then Kenyan trials and to represent Kenya in World Champs cross country in Kampala in March.
She hopes the endurance gained in the cross country will exalt her higher and boost her fitness as she embarks on the track season where she is targeting to win the World Championships in London.
Kipyegon started her senior contest in London in 2012, but could not make the semifinals of the women' s 1,500m race. She returned in Moscow in 2013 and was fifth in the final and last year, she won silver at the Beijing World Championships before upgrading that to gold in Rio Olympic Games.
