Olympic Games 10,000m bronze medalist Letesenbet Gidey, Commonwealth Games Stella Chesang, former world cross country silver medalist Senbere Teferi, Ugandan Esther Chebet, Suleiman Anley from Djibouti are among the 70 athletes that will be competing at the inaugural Agnes Jebet Memorial cross country championships set for Saturday at the Eldoret’s Lobo Village.
The Local Organizing Committee (LOC) chairman Abraham Mutai revealed on Wednesday afternoon that the competition will be high considering that some of these athletes ran with the late Agnes Tirop.
“We are anticipating a big foreign athletes’ contingent and with such a high caliber of athletes, we need to be at the high level of preparations,” said Mutai.
Ethiopian Gidey has dominated world cross country championships starting from her junior cadre, winning gold to the senior level with a bronze.
“If they are going to host these athletes, we must put in place the best measures to meet the international standards in this first race,” added Mutai.
Another Ethiopian Teferi finished second, winning silver during the 2015 world cross country championships held in Guiyang, China when Jebet won the world cross country title.
“Majority of these athletes competed with the late Agnes and once they compete at her race to remember her, it will be an added advantage in their career. Remembering such a great runner makes the world feel the goodness of the Kenyan runners,” added Mutai.
He also revealed that Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed will lead dignitaries at the race.
“We will have a large number of dignitaries both locally, nationally and at the international level. These will be led by our sports Cabinet secretary Amina Mohammed.