Noah Ngeny (2389) wins the Olympic title in Sydney (© Getty Images)
Nairobi, KenyaAthletics Kenya's season is entering its crucial stage with the Armed Forces Championships being held at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, on Friday 6 June and Saturday 7 June.
The Armed Forces will name their team on Saturday for the National Championships to be held on July 10-12. Observers are already speculating that the soldiers could again dominate the Kenyan team to the World Championships, which will be held in French city of Paris in August.
Athletics Kenya will hold its trials for the World Championships on July 25-26.
The Armed Forces have released a start list that reads like a ‘who’s who’ of world of athletes. However, conspicuous by his absence will be five-time World Cross Country Champion Paul Tergat, who also won silver medals over 10,000m at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, and at the World Championships in 1997 and 1999.
Tergat, 32, who is an Air Force sergeant at the Moi Air Base in the capital city Nairobi, is not included in the list of those expected to run at the Kasarani stadium, but otherwise the line-up is nothing short of depth in talent and experience.
The 10,000m race will feature a strong field that includes Kenya's reigning cross country champion John Korir Cheruiyot and last year's fastest 10-km runner Sammy Kipketer. Patrick Ivuti, who was a silver medalist when Tergat won his fifth and last world cross country title in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1999, is again enjoying great shape having taken silver again, this time behind Bekele in Lausanne, and is rated among the race's front runners.
2002 World Cross Country Championships bronze medalist Wilberforce Talel, and veteran cross country athletes Paul Koskei and Paul Koech are among the other big names to parade for the 25-lap race.
Olympic 1500m champion Noah Ngeny has a chance to make a strong comeback following a bad patch in his career that started with an ignominious ousting from the Kenyan team to the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton, Canada, after he defied Athletics Kenya's instructions to return home.
"My training is going on well and I hope to make the Armed Forces team to the National Championships and eventually get a chance in the Kenyan team for the World Championships," Ngeny, a sergeant, said during training session at the Kasarani stadium this week.
1997 World 3000m steeplechase champion Wilson Boit Kipketer will start his as the top favourite over the barriers in a race that has some of the world's top athletes. 1996 Atlanta Olympic champion Joseph Keter, Abraham Cherono, the Commonwealth Games bronze medalist, and seasoned steeplechasers John Koskei, Kipkurui Misoi and Jonathan Kandie are among the stars that Kipketer will face.
Two former World Cross Country short race champions John Kibowen and Benjamin Limo are expected to dominate the 5000m against a strong field that will include Paul Kosgei, David Kiplak, Sammy Kipketer and Stephen Korir.
Sally Barsosio, who won the World 10,000m title in Athens in 1997, will be continuing with her comeback campaign after a two-year maternity lay-off – she had a baby son – and will face a small group of tough athletes like Jane Omoro, Angelina Laichena, Irene Kwamabai and Winfred Kwamboka.
In the women's 2,000m steeplechase, Irene Lemika is the top favourite, but marathon runner Beatrice Omwanza can not be ruled out.
