Kenyan women runners eye medals in Beijing

NAIROBI, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's women athletes have stepped up their training ahead of the Olympic Games to be held in Beijing.

Although after failing to win any medal for the country at previous Olympic Games, women's 3000 steeplechase runners, Veronica Nyaruai, Ruth Bosibori and Eunice Jepkorir, want to change history by winning medals which have eluded them in the past.

Nyaruai, who made her name as a junior prodigy, winning numerous honors, will lead other compatriots in Beijing.

"Initially, my jumping style was poor but after a bit of practice and mastering, I am getting it well," Nyaruai told the local Daily Nation newspaper.

Nyaruai set a personal best of 9:03.01 for 3,000m when she finished second to Priscah Cherono during the Confederation of Africa Athletics meeting in Nairobi.

Her time of 8:52.9 during the 2005 national world youth trials was the prelude to her victory in the world youth title in Marrakech, Morocco (9:01.61).

Keen on bagging the elusive medal, Nyaruai has vowed to improve on her jumping skills. Also in the team is world junior champion, Ruth Bosibori, who used to run barefoot even on tartan tracks regardless of the weather, and, started running in 2003 while in Form Two.

The 20-year-old Bisobori was inspired to take up the sport by Commonwealth Games 5,000m champion Isabella Ochichi and four-time Boston Marathon winner and former world record holder, Catherine Ndereba.

"I heard much about the two and wanted just to be like them one day," she said. The last born in family of two brothers and one sister, Bosibori ran the 5,000m, 10,000m and steeplechase, the event she excelled at most, while studying at Kebirichi Secondary School in Masaba District.

Victory in last year's All Africa Games in Algiers, helped her form a winning formula. With a world leading time of 9:11.18, 26-year old Eunice Jepkorir completes trio's team.

During the Bislett Games in Oslo last year, she broke the Kenyan record after clocking 9:19.44.

Two weeks later, Jepkorir set a new African and Commonwealth record of 9:14.52. Uganda's Inzikuru held the previous record of 9:15.04. Last month in Huelva, Spain, she bettered her African record to 9:11.18.