NAIROBI, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Just as they had promised, the Kenyan trio of Wilson Kiprop, Geoffrey Mutai and Matthew Kisorio collaborated to wrest the men's 10,000m title from Ethiopian hands on Wednesday.
At the end of tactically grueling race, which was run in misty and windy conditions, the vocal Nyayo National Stadium crowd was warmed by the display of the home runners who recorded the 1-3-4 finish to ignite the championships.
"It was a difficult race but we had trained hard for it and we are happy to win two medals," said Kiprop, the new African 25-lap champion in 27:32.91.
"As the gold medalist, I'm proud to have posted this achievement but tribute goes to my teammates," Kiprop said.
"We were ready for all conditions, we are used to any kind of weather since we train here but I must congratulate the fans. We asked them to turn out and support us and they gave us a good morale," he added.
The freshly minted gold medalist is eager to do his continent proud at the IAAF Intercontinental Cup (formerly World Cup) in Split, Croatia (September 4 and 5) after securing his ticket with victory.
"I will step up my training so that I represent Africa in the best way I can, and that is by winning," the Paris Half Marathon champion said.
