Fireworks as Eldoret hosts National Cross Country

The atmosphere in Eldoret on Friday, just hours to Saturday's National Cross Country Championships, was already electrifying.

Athletics charges taking part in today’s contest arrived in their numbers and in style, in readiness for today’s action.

Olympic and World 3000m steeplechase bronze medallist Abraham Kibiwott are among big shots eyeing glory in the men's 10km race this afternoon.

Mercy Chepkemoi, who will be transitioning to the senior ranks as she competes in the women’s 10km race today is among athletes who familiarised themselves with the course at Eldoret Sports Club yesterday.

“This will be my first race in the senior category and I will be hoping to do my best at the National Cross Country. I have trained well and am looking forward to an exciting competition in Eldoret,” the Kuresoi-based Chepkemoi said yesterday.

As athletes streamed into the Mecca of athletics for today’s action, the atmosphere at the City of Champions was already exhilarating.

Races will officially kick off at noon with the 6km Under-20 women contest expected to be complete by 12.30pm.

The 2km loop which will be run from 4.15pm will be the final event of the National Cross Country run.

Athletics Kenya (AK) president Jackson Tuwei had two days ago described the atmosphere as tense, but promised gorgeous entertainment for over 50,000 enthusiasts expected at the Eldoret Sports Club.

Initially, the National Cross Country Championships had been scheduled for Ruiru on the outskirts of Nairobi, but was changed last month in a move that caused the return of thrilling action to Eldoret.

The change of venue elicited excitement among athletics fans who would have travelled all the way to Ruiru to follow the blistering National Cross Country contests in Nairobi.

Eldoret has been the centre of huge surprises.

For instance, Steeplechase specialist Amos Kirui upstaged some of the country’s experienced athletes among them four-time (two junior and two senior) World Cross Country champion Geoffrey Kamworor when the city hosted the event.

Kirui, the 2016 world Under-20 steeplechase champion sprinted away from a field that included Kamworor and World Under-20 10,000m champion Rhonex Kipruto to win by a seven-second margin and qualified for the 43rd World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark.

According to the AK president, athletes participating in the federation’s events including the upcoming national cross country must be duly registered by the federation.

Organisers said traditional dancers have fine tuned famous songs that are used to entertain champions at airports and which will continuously ring in the ears of athletics fans at the Eldoret showdown.

At the Eldoret cross country showpiece, fans will not fail to spot athletics legends who laid the marker in various events – on the track and roads.

Big events such as the National Cross Country Championships and Sirikwa Classic World Cross Country Tour have pulled huge numbers of athletics enthusiasts who have always gathered to follow the competitions live, whenever the events are staged in the city where athletics is a religion.

You will rarely fail to spot in the crowds big names such as Olympic champion from the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Kipchoge Keino, who has a stadium named after him in the city, three-time Boston Marathon Champion Ibrahim Hussein and to the recent greats among them former marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge and two-time Olympic steeplechase Champion Ezekiel Kemboi among hundreds of retired stars who receive red carpet receptions across the globe.

Legends, who competed in the 1960s to early 1990s, will be reminiscing the old days where they ran barefoot as they watched stars racing with modern shoes that give athletes much more comfort.