Kenya’s golden girls of athletics, Faith Kipyegon and Beatrice Chebet, returned home to a rousing welcome this week after their record-breaking performances at the Prefontaine Classic in the USA. But even as the nation celebrated their world-beating feats and the government fulfilled its 2023 promise by awarding each athlete KSh 5 million, both champions used the moment to highlight a lingering issue: the poor state of training facilities in Kenya.

Faith Kipyegon, who broke her own 1500m world record with a stunning time of 3:48.68, was both gracious and candid as she addressed the media.

“You know about it, and I will still talk about it,” she said. “When I was preparing to go and try to be the first woman to run under four minutes, I went through a lot , especially finding where to prepare and where to train. The Kipchoge Keino Stadium was closed at the time. I was so disappointed.”

Kipyegon praised the School of Law and the University of Eldoret for stepping in to provide her with space to train, but stressed that Kenya’s elite athletes deserve better.

“I tried my best to be the best in the world with just those two facilities,” she said. “All over the world, elite athletes have perfect facilities. That’s why the competition is so high. If we had good tracks, we could perform even better.”

Her appeal wasn’t just for herself, but for future generations.

“This is a request not only for me, but for all athletes and the young ones who look up to us. We hope one day they will have a better place to train.”

Beatrice Chebet, who became the first woman to run under 14 minutes in the 5,000 metres, setting a new world record of 13:58.06, echoed the same frustration.

“She [Faith] spoke about Annex and Chepkoilel, but these are not good facilities,” said Chebet. “When it rains, you can’t train , you have to wait. That’s not how athletes should prepare.”

Chebet emphasized that their achievements came despite training on muram tracks , unpaved, outdated surfaces that are far from ideal for world-class performance.

“We don’t ask for much — just a track. Look at what we achieved with almost nothing. Imagine what more we could do with proper facilities.”

The government, on its part, kept its word and awarded Kipyegon and Chebet KSh 5 million each ,a commitment made in 2023 for every world record broken by a Kenyan athlete.