Injured Songok out of Edinburgh race

• Star recovering in Iten as Kipchoge, Ebuya and Ndiwa leave for Scotland

Africa 5,000 metres silver medallist Isaac Songok has pulled out of Saturday’s Great Edinburgh International Cross Country meeting in Scotland due to an injury sustained during training in Iten.

However, three other top runners - former junior world cross country champion Mangata Ndiwa, Olympic 5,000 metres silver medallist Eliud Kipchoge and Augustine Choge, the Commonwealth Games champion in the 5,000m - are among the elite runners who will be in Edinburgh.

Of the trio, who depart tonight for the Scottish capital, it is only Ndiwa who has had his form tested this season when he sprinted to victory in Kisii during the Athletics Kenya weekend meeting last month.

Both Choge and Kipchoge have held a low profile since the Beijing Olympics last August.

Speaking from Iten on Tuesday, Songok, who has just started light training said he has not given up hope of representing the country at the World Cross Country Championship in Amman, Jordan, on March 28.

“The injury was not too bad. But after missing out on the Olympics, I need to get something and the cross country title is the likeliest. I want to see if I can make it for the Eldoret weekend meeting this Saturday.

Disappointing

“But I was not in good form to travel abroad for the Edinburgh race,” he said.

Choge, who had a disappointing performance in the 1,500m race at the Olympics, said he also had a tendon injury after Beijing that locked him out of the start of the cross country season.

“I have been battling with a tendon injury and that is why I was not in both the Wareng and Nyahururu cross country meetings.

“But it has healed and I will be gauging myself in Edinburgh,” he said. “I need top opposition to see where I rank and that is why I want to run in Scotland.”

The trio will come up against last year’s World Cross Country Championships’ 12km winner, Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese, while defending champion, Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, is out injured.

Kipchoge last won the Edinburgh meet in 2005. But Choge might not travel to Amman as he is keen to pursue interests on the track.

However, that will depend on his performance in Scotland and two indoor meeting he is scheduled to compete in later.

“I have discussed the issue with my coach, Colm O’Connell, and we have not decided on whether it will be the indoor or cross country that I will focus on,” said Choge.