Top elite athletes are set to fight for honors at the 31st edition of the Discovery Kenya cross country championships that will be held on Sunday (30) at the Eldoret Sports Club in Eldoret.
Discovery Kenya is the oldest cross country championships, where over 1,500 athletes are expected to compete for the podium.
The Race director David Letting said that they used to face many challenges where the weekend that they hosted their championships, the same weekend there were other races.
“This will be one of the most competitive races now that we don’t have other races across the country. In many years, during our championships, we used to have many races across the country. We used to have races like the Kenya Police Service, Kenya Defence Forces, Kenya Prisons Service and University championships but this time, all is already done,” said Letting.
The long serving coach admitted that it will be challenging to host such a big field of great runners from across the country and may be the international athletes who will be using the event ahead of Agnes Tirop Memorial World Cross Country Tour that will be held on 12th February in Eldoret’s Lobo village.
“Some athletes may use this big challenge as part of their preparations for the World Cross Country Tour following the conclusion of the national cross country that was held last weekend. But as a team, we are well prepared for big events and such challenges of hosting a large number of athletes,” he said.
However, there will be only four categories unlike in the past where the championships used to have ten categories.
This year and last year, the only competition will be in 10km senior men and women, 6km junior women and 8km junior men. Initially, the championships used to have the U15, U10, and U6 years as a way of promoting and nurturing the young talents.
“This year, we will only have a few races because most young children are in school and the issue of coronavirus is still with us so we need to protect these young people,” said Letting.
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