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Ronald Kwemoi has narrated how he found solace in the 5000m after a series of injuries while running the 1500m almost ended his career.
Ronald Kwemoi has opened up about how a series of injuries motivated him to switch from the 1500m to the 5000m and finally managed to get a medal on the Olympic stage.
Running the 1500m, Kwemoi managed to win a silver medal at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games before winning a bronze medal at the 2014 African Championships. In the 1500m, he competed at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships in London and Doha respectively.
In London, he was knocked out from the final after finishing ninth in the semifinal while in Doha, he finished seventh in the final. He was yet to represent the country on an Olympic stage but his switch to the 5000m made that dream a reality as he made the cut to the Olympic team at the Kenyan Olympic trials.
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21:07 - 10.08.2024
Paris Olympics: Kenya's Ronald Kwemoi bags silver as Jakob Ingebrigtsen claims 5,000m gold
Kenya's Ronald Kwemoi managed an impressive silver medal in the men's 5,000m as Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen won his first gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
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However, he admitted that a series of injuries motivated his switch after he was inactive between 2017 and 2020, racing sparingly.
“For me, I’m a 1500m runner and I have been there for long. I was running the 1500m until 2016. After a series of injuries, I decided to switch and run the 5000m,” Kwemoi said in a post-race interview.
“In 2017, I had a stress fracture and then in 2020, I suffered a hamstring injury and then I just decided to move to the 5000m. In future, I think I will move to the 10,000m and I want to discuss with my coach and see if I can run the 25-lap race next year,” he added.
At the Paris Olympics, Kwemoi entered the race as just any other athlete, with very little known about him. However, he put in the work during the race and emerged second in the dramatic turn of events.
Kwemoi made history by winning Kenya’s first medal since the 2012 London Olympic Games where Thomas Longosiwa claimed a bronze medal. Jakob Ingebrigtsen took the win in the men’s 5000m as Grant Fisher claimed the bronze.
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