AK X-country season starts this Saturday

Athletics Kenya Nairobi region chairman Barnaba Korir displays a replica Diamond, at a media briefing on August 14, 2014, to be awarded to the winners in the CPF Nairobi Diamond 10km race. Korir said that most of Kenya’s top athletes will battle it out at Posta Grounds on Ngong Road in the opening leg of the 2014/2015 AK Cross Country season in Nairobi on November 1, 2014. FILE PHOTO | MARTIN MUKANGU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The first two events in the series (Nairobi and Kapsokwony legs) will be sponsored by AK but the next four that have been categorised as Premium races have full sponsorship from Kenya Commercial Bank among others.

Preparations for the opening leg of the 2014/2015 Athletics Kenya Cross Country season in Nairobi on Saturday are complete, with established and upcoming athletes set to battle it out.

AK Nairobi region chairman Barnabas Korir has said that most of Kenya’s top athletes will battle it out at Posta Grounds along Nairobi’s Ngong Road in the season-opening event.

“With the World Cross-country Championship due next year in China, a quality field is expected,” said Korir, adding that the first race, the junior women’s 6km race, will start at 8.30am.

World 5,000m bronze medallist Isaiah Koech Kiplangat will highlight senior men’s 12km race where he will face off with Emmanuel Bett, who is graduating to the senior category after finishing second in the junior race last year.

Also set to battle for top honours is the 2008 World Junior 10,000m champion Josphat Bett while Alfred Lorot, who finished second in junior race at the Africa Cross-country Championships in Uganda in March, highlights the category.

Last year, little-known Silas Kimutai and the 2006 World Junior 5000m silver medallist Mary Wacera reigned supreme in the senior men and women’s races.

The 2013 World Cross-country junior women’s silver medallist Agnes Jebet swept to victory in a gun-to-tape show in junior women’s 6km race, while Nyahururu’s James Mwangi waited until the last 400m before bursting from a pack of four to win the junior men’s 8km title.

The first two events in the series (Nairobi and Kapsokwony legs) will be sponsored by AK but the next four that have been categorised as Premium races have full sponsorship from Kenya Commercial Bank among others.