Kenya's Rose Cheruiyot, back to fitness after bearing two children, has set her eyes on a title at the world cross-country championships in Dublin in March. Looking impressive after winning the 8-km race at Kenya's prestigious Armed Forces cross-country championships on Saturday, Cheruiyot said she was now fully fit and raring to go.
"I want to return to the global stage and win a title," she told Reuters. "I hope to do so in Dublin, now I am fully ready for top level competition."
Cheruiyot won the IAAF cross country challenge series in 1995 and a silver medal the following year in Cape Town, losing to Ethiopia's Gete Wami.
She married twice world 5,000 metres champion Ishmael Kirui the same year and gave birth to two children in 1997 and 1998, giving up the track to become a full-time mother.
"As Africans, it is important that we have a family first, then we can continue with our running careers," she said.
Cheruiyot ran the 5,000 metres at last year's Olympics in Sydney and although she may have felt her performance was below par, she is grateful to her husband that she was able to go at all.
"Being a wife to an athlete is very fulfilling," she said. "He understands the situation well and does the baby sitting as I go out running."
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
