Athletics Kenya will be selecting the Africa Cross country team during the third edition of Sirikwa cross Country championships set for February 3rd at the Lobo Village in Uasin Gishu County.
With the Africa Cross country championships slated for February 26th in Tunisia, top six finishers in each category will earn a slot for the Africa championships.
Speaking during the launch of the race at the Lobo Village in Uasin Gishu county on Wednesday, the federation’s president Jack Tuwei said that they will select a good team for the continental event.
“This event is a golden Label and we shall select the best team to represent our country,” said Tuwei.
He added that after the Sirikwa race last year, all top finishers had a successful year led by Faith Kipyegon.
“Imagine the fruits that came from this race. Last year, when Faith won the 10km senior women, she went ahead to break three world records in one mile, 1,500m and the 5,000m. This is a great place for athletes to start from,” said Tuwei.
Race director Barnaba Korir said that they have a good system of making sure that everybody is invited and inclusive.
“For us to have a good event, we shall bring on board some of the athletes that competed last year in the cross country last year like the top ten athletes from the cross country series so that we don’t leave anybody out. We also have the criteria ranked in the top 20 in the world in road race and track and we shall extend the invitation. Also the regional cross country meetings that have taken place to bring the top ten to bring them to the competition,” said Korir.
He added that they bring the young athletes that have not competed anywhere and compete at the primary and secondary schools by widening the net and capturing everybody.
“The names that have been selected have to be given to the World Athletics to be vetted and if they want to test everybody to determine who should be tested,” said Korir.