Day 8 Berlin

Please rise for the Kenyan national anthem comes the announcement to a capacity crowd. The reason, a tiny girl Vivian Cheryiout whom you may remember running in the Finn Valley 5k in December Stephens day 2007. On that occasion she stayed for the Christmas with Kieran Carlin and trained in Drumboe Forest. She now is world champion running down another Kenyan and an Ethiopian in the final 80m. Vivian has been consistently supported by Richard Simms hence the special nature of this victory to the extent he flew her from Nairobi in early 2008 to London for medical treatment when she was diagnosed with malaria and the Kenyan federation were less than attentive to her medical condition.

One of the key aspects to emerge here has been the response of the German team and individuals with the serious support of the home crowd which has the knock on effect of creating a great atmosphere. Athletics is clearly still a family sport as I continually observe families having a great day out at this event in a relaxed non threatening atmosphere and so we have only one day left.

Jason Quigley s result has received national attention I note at home, well deserved. This competition preliminaries began here in Berlin and were completed in Poland I understand.

Patsy mc Gonagle
Team Manager
Berlin 2009

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