By Athletics Kenya Media Team
Kenya’s charge at the inaugural World Ultimate Championships in Budapest, Hungary, got off to a frustrating start on Friday evening as national 400m champion Mercy Oketch and distance stars Jacob Krop and Cornelius Kemboi fought bravely in their respective events but fell short of the podium.
Oketch was the first Kenyan to step onto the track, lining up in women’s 400m semi-final two.
The national champion missed out on a place in the final after clocking 52.94 seconds to finish eighth.
Mercy Oketch’s 2026 performance
Despite the disappointment in Budapest, Oketch has pieced together a remarkable 2026 campaign.
She launched her indoor season with victory at the Internationales Leichtathletik Meeting in Chemnitz, Germany, in 52.98, before carrying that momentum into the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Madrid, where she finished third in 52.25.
Oketch returned to winning ways at the Meeting Metz Moselle, powering to victory in 51.53, then produced another impressive display at the World Indoor Championships in Poland, finishing fifth in 51.25.
Her outdoor campaign burst into life in emphatic fashion at the Kip Keino Classic, where she stormed to victory in 50.17.
The sprint queen also claimed victory over 300m at the Simbine Classic in 35.77, finished third over the same distance at the Trond Mohn Games in Norway in 36.79, and capped another memorable outing by winning the 600m at the Lightning 10,000 Meeting in Stadtallendorf, Germany, in 1:27.55.
World Ultimate Championship: How Kenyans performed in 5,000m race
Meanwhile, in the men’s 5,000m final, Krop and Kemboi were unable to mount a serious challenge, with Krop finishing 10th in 13:06.62 and Kemboi placing 11th in 13:07.68.
Krop had returned to Budapest hoping to write a sharper chapter than his memorable appearance at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in the Hungarian capital.
He won bronze in that final after clocking 13:12.28, finishing behind Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen (13:11.30) and Spain’s Mohamed Katir (13:11.44).
His 2026 season began with back-to-back runner-up finishes over 3,000m indoors at the Karlsruhe Meeting in Germany (7:38.64) and the Meeting Hauts-de-France (7:34.68).
Krop then narrowly missed a global podium at the World Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland, settling for fourth in 7:36.76.
Outdoors, he opened with a third-place finish over 5,000m at the Kip Keino Classic in 13:13.59, before enduring a difficult start to his Diamond League campaign, placing eighth over 3,000m in Shanghai (7:28.72) and 12th over 5,000m in Xiamen (13:01.51).
His resurgence came in Paris, where he rediscovered his trademark finishing kick to claim second in 12:55.22.
He followed that with fourth in Monaco (12:53.72), 14th in Lausanne (13:13.29), and wrapped up the Diamond League season with seventh in the Brussels final in 12:51.23.
Kemboi, meanwhile, arrived in Budapest looking to build on his impressive third-place finish at the Brussels Diamond League Final, where he clocked 12:47.29.
His 2026 Diamond League campaign has been a mixed bag, yielding fifth over 3,000m in Shanghai (7:27.46), eighth in the 5,000m at Xiamen (13:08.45), 10th in Oslo (12:56.02), eighth in Paris (12:58.10), and fifth-place finishes in both Monaco (12:57.36) and Lausanne (12:59.33).
