Slowly but surely putting to shame critics of her so-called elevated natural testosterone levels with a string of thunderous performances, Namibia’s Tokyo Olympics silver medallist and 2021 Diamond League 200m reigning champion Christine Mboma will tomorrow again have all eyes fixed on her.

The 18-year-old Namibian sprint ace will take centre stage when the second edition of the Kip Keino Classic gets underway at the Moi International Sports Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.

The event serves as the final of the World Athletics Continental Gold Tour, and will equally serve as a perfect platform for Mboma to further magnify her reputation as a callous world beater in the global short distances. 

The event is expected to attract an estimated 265 local and international athletes, and already saw America’s three-time world 100m champion Justin Gatlin and compatriot Bromell Trayvon touching down at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport yesterday.

Mboma and her coach, Henk Botha were also expected to land in Nairobi yesterday, joining a horde of other top foreign athletes. 

Some of these athletes are women's 3 000m steeplechase champions Soufiane El Bakkali from Morocco and Uganda's Peruth Chemutai, Tokyo Olympics hammer throw champion Wojciech Nowicki, and Olympics 100m silver medallist Fred Kerley.

Commonwealth Games 400m champion Isaac Makwala of Botswana and World U/20 200m bronze medallist South Africa's Sinesipho Dambile will also be in the mix.

There will be 10 core events on the cards: men and women’s hammer throw, men’s pole vault, women’s long jump, men’s 100m, men and women’s 200m and men and women’s 3 000m steeplechase.

The men and women’s 5 000m, men and women’s 1 500m, men and women’s 800m and men’s javelin throw will fall under the discretionary events among others. 

The Kenyan leg of the World Athletics Continental Gold Tour is named after that country’s track and field legend and Olympian Kipchoge Keino. 

- ohembapu@nepc.com.na