Athletics Kenya President Jack Tuwei wants elite athletes to be part of the national cross-country circuit if they are to secure positions to represent Kenya at the global show set for February 18 in Bathurst, Australia.
He said the event organizers have asked AK to send the names of competitors by December 1, 2022 —just two months before the global showpiece.
“We have kicked off preparations for the World Cross Country Championships because this time around it will come earlier than other years. Normally this event is held in March.
" Our cross-country series is ongoing and since we want to take a strong team to Bathurst, we must use the local circuit as a build-up,” said Tuwei.
He said their intention is to send a list of probables to World Athletics by December 1 before coming up with the final list a bit later.
He said they hope to send a larger team for the purpose of good returns although the final team will officially be named during the national championships.
He said they will also engage the Australian Embassy to understand their situation as far as visa requests are concerned. "The reason why we are doing this is that processing documents may take time,” he said.
He explained that cross country is a good build-up for athletes across the board including field, track and road running.
"One doesn’t need to run the whole series but it's important to start getting into that mood of competition for next season,” added Tuwei.
He also said competition for slots in next year's World Championships in Budapest, will equally be tough.
