Tšepo Mathibelle fine-tuning for Rio 2016 in Kenya

Road To Rio: Tšepo Mathibelle (in white) in Kenya

Lesotho marathon specialist Tšepo Mathibelle says his Olympic training camp in Kenya is going well.

Mathibelle is working out at the High Performance Athletics Training Camp in Kaptagat, Kenya.

He started the camp on May 29 in preparation for the 2016 Rio Games in August.

The 24 year-old said he will not take part in any races from now until the 42.2 kilometres Olympic marathon race on 21 August.

“The competition that I am going to compete in is the Rio Olympics,” Mathibelle said. “For now I am just training. The Olympic Games marathon is on the 21st of August while other events start on the 5th; the marathon will be when the Games are being closed.”

“Training is going very well. I will be here for two months. I started on the 29th of May and will leave on the 31st of July,” Mathibelle said.

Mathibelle is part of an elite training camp featuring a number of Rio 2016 medal hopefuls.

Kenya is widely recognised as the world’s best location for marathon training and the country has a proud tradition of producing premier long distance athletes. Kaptagat is an area within the Kenyan highlands. With routes that begin at an altitude of around 2400 metres, it is known world over as an ideal place for athletes to train.

By training in Kenya, Mathibelle is looking to build on the gains he has made over the past four years.

Tšepo Mathibelle

Last year, he finished in a praiseworthy 14th place in a time of 2:17:17 hours at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China.

On April 3, Mathibelle finished seventh at the Daegu International Marathon in South Korea and recorded a best personal time of 2:15:39. The new mark bettered his previous best of 2:16:21 set at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

“The training camp has runners from around the world that are going to Rio. Right now I am also with runners that are going to the Berlin Marathon (in September). It’s very good,” Mathibelle said.

He continued: “My personal best will go down again now that I am here training amongst the best runners in the world.”

The Rio Olympics are slated for August 5 to 21. The marathon will be the Games’ closing event.