Some weeks to the Budapest World Championships, Kenya’s Emmanuel Korir had spoken of his gold from Oregon and how it had unlocked his appetite for medals.
With an apparently insatiable hunger for success, the America-based man also spoke of how he intended to shake off a nagging calf injury that had locked him out of the national trials- much to his chagrin.
“I am happy, I am not disappointed as people would expect, I appreciate being here. I have been in the best shape this season, but I can’t do much because of the injury, I did well for my self maybe Kenyans and fans are not happy but I did my best,” Korir said.
He wished the duo of youngsters Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Alex Ng’eno all the best and is upbeat the gold will remain in Kenya.
“I wish them well, let them go fight for this, it is an individual effort, let them be themselves and push to the finals, I am confident we will take gold back to Kenya.”
Korir had purposed to compete in the national trials but gave the event a wide berth for fears that his calf injury could easily aggregate.
The 800m Oregon world champion was then compelled to seek specialised treatment abroad to safeguard his stellar career.
In Oregon, Korir celebrated a significant moment of his athletics career, incidentally on first Worlds, which translated to the all-important 800m gold.
But the man from the cradle of the country’s middle and long distance running suffered a humiliating performance in Budapest in a scenario a myriad Kenyan fans would love to forget in a hurry.
The Olympic champion and Olympic 800m silver medallist Ferguson Rotich were eliminated in the first round.
–Why Korir fell by the wayside —
Running in the fifth of seven heats, Korir went with the flow for the pace set by France’s Benjamin Robert (55.04 at 400m), and was well in the hunt for a top-3 auto qualifier slot until the last 100 meters to spare where he was second at that point.
So Korir faded and could only manage fourth in a time of 1:46.78, a mark that wasn’t good enough to catapult him to the next level.
Asked about his Budapest performance, Korir told Capital FM Sport: “It was great, given the race circumstances and my situation, I am happy. I’m not disappointed by my performance in any way as I was nursing a serious injury and because I had a wildcard, I just said to myself, let me just run in Budapest and see how it goes.”
“But then again, there is little you can do with such injuries, so it’s one of those days. All in all, I must admit that I ran my race and did my best and that was the result.”
Korir also confirmed that he will also be skipping Diamond League races to allow his injury heal fully.
“Actually, I had been taking a break since last month. Doctors run an MRI scan and from all indications, the injury will take longer than I expected. I’m going to take a rest and target the Olympics gold next year. I have not healed fully. I have been running on the injury since March,” Korir said in finality.
