Athletics Kenya have not ruled out wild cards in selection of Team Kenya to the World Cross Country Championships as national trials go down at Eldoret Sports Club next weekend.
AK president Jackson Tuwei reiterated that selection will be on merit. “Everybody is being given a chance to make Team Kenya and only the top six in the individual events will make the team,” said Tuwei.
He revealed that Kenya will pick a team of 30 during the trials to be held outside Nairobi for the first time ever in a week’s time.
This will include six athletes in each of the five categories lined up, thus junior men, junior women, senior men, senior women and the mixed relays. In the relays, Tuwei said they will depend on the technical teams to identify the best.
“In the relays, each runner will run a loop of two kilometres and it is up to the officials to pick the best after the trials,” added Tuwei.
The AK boss remains apprehensive of the conditions expected at the World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark as well as the steep course waiting for the competitors.
“This is nothing to worry about. Remember sometimes cross country is run on snow, mud or very dry course and these are issues to be covered in training,” he said.
“Whether there will be obstacles, climbs or steeps, we will be ready and the athletes should be able to overcome this, in a addition to building up on their endurance during residential training.”
Once selected, Tuwei added, the team will pitch camp at their usual residential training base at the Kigari Teachers Training College in Embu County.
They will be in Embu for close to a month before flying to Europe for the March 30 event in Denmark, where they expect to defend their overall, senior men and women’s individual titles as well as chase the elusive individual and team titles in the junior cadres.
Kenya will also be hoping to leave a mark in the mixed relay by defending the title they won during the first edition of the race in Uganda two years ago.
Ethiopia holds the senior men, junior men and women’s team titles.
Kenya won 12 medals (four gold, five silver and three bronze) in Uganda to top the table standings ahead of long time rivals Ethiopia (four gold, four silver, one bronze) and Uganda (one gold and two bronze medals).