National Athletics coach Julius Kirwa.
He has seen it all with Team Kenya, at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships, the World Athletics Championships, the Africa Athletics Championships, the African Games, and the Commonwealth Games.
It’s now a quarter of a century since Julius Kirwa was appointed head coach of the Kenya cross-country team.
And if the 62-year-old retired Kenya Defence Forces Warrant Officer One thought he had seen it all, then he is mistaken.
Kirwa noted that for the first time since taking charge in 2000, he is handling a virtually new team for the World Cross Country Championships scheduled for January 10, in Tallahassee, Florida, USA.
The squad of 30 athletes, which has pitched camp at the Kigari Teachers Training College in Embu, includes reigning senior women's champion Beatrice Chebet and 2023 world 10,000m silver medallist Daniel Simiu.
Team Kenya head coach Julius Kirwa gestures during a training session on August 16, 2023 at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.
“Over half of the team is new, and it presents a different scenario and challenge altogether. This is a good thing for the coaches as we need to be more innovative in our training programmes,” said Kirwa.
“In the previous years, we used to have very few debutantes, not exceeding five, but this time it is different. The majority in the team are inexperienced,” said Kirwa in an interview with Nation Sport.
He singled out Simiu and 2019 African Games 5,000m champion Robert Kiprop as the regulars in the senior men’s team.
Simiu finished sixth on his world cross country debut in 2023 in Bathurst, Australia, where the senior men’s team won the team title despite failing to win a single individual medal.
The only experienced runners in the women’s senior team are Chebet, who will be going for an unprecedented third consecutive title by a Kenyan, Agnes Ng’etich, who won team gold in 2023 and 2024, and the 2024 world cross country silver medallist, Lilian Kasait.
Kirwa said it was his dream to see Kenya’s senior men recapture the individual 10km gold that has been elusive since Geoffrey Kamworor retained his title in Kampala in 2017.
Team Kenya's athletics head coach Julius Kirwa looks at the lap timing during a past training session.
“We are really working hard with the athletes and implementing the best possible training plans. We are in good shape,” said Kirwa. He revealed that they have been training in the Mount Kenya region, which has similar chilly conditions to those anticipated in Florida next month.
Kenya topped the medals standings with 11 -- six gold, two silver, and three bronze -- at the 2024 World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
However, Kirwa noted that the 2009 Amman, Jordan and 2010 Bydgoszcz, Poland editions remain his greatest outings as the head coach to date.
Florence Kiplagat handed Kenya their second senior women’s individual gold in Amman after Hellen Chepng’eno’s exploits in 1994 Budapest, Hungary.
“I literally ran alongside Kiplagat, chasing her at the chilly course,” Kirwa recalls with a telling laugh.
Kenya claimed all eight medals at 2010 Bydgoszcz championships with David Ebuya and Emily Chebet winning senior men's and women’s gold medals as Caleb Mwangangi and Mercy Cherono scooped the junior titles.
Mwangangi led Clement Kiprono and Japheth Kipyegon to a podium sweep in the junior men’s race while Cherono, Purity Rionoripo, and Esther Chemtai repeated the feat in junior women. Chebet led Linet Masai to a 1-2 finish in the senior women’s race.
Florida beckons, and this could be another possible Kirwa class act.
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