Only top two athletes for Korea meet

Only the first two athletes across the line will get an automatic ticket to join the national team to next month’s World Athletics Championship in Daegu, South Korea.

The third runner across the line will have to wait for the coaches’ wild card to be confirmed in the team, according to guidelines issued by Athletics Kenya to be used during the national championships, which will be staged at the Nyayo National Stadium from Thursday to Saturday.

However, the top six finishers stand a better chance to be considered for the Daegu or the All Africa Games as the AK seeks to pick top runners for the two events.

The first priority will be for the World championships in Daegu, while the other athletes will form a team to represent the country at the tenth All Africa Games, which will be held in Maputo, Mozambique, from September 3-18.

Focus on World championships

While focus for any athlete will be to compete at the World championship, the premier track and field competition, AK chairman, Isaiah Kiplagat ruled out any talk of naming a second tier team for the Pan Africa Games.

“You know that the Kenyan championships are one of the toughest in the world. To make the top five is really hard and anyone who ranks top can win on his day, so there is no way Kenya can select a second-string team,” he said.

The hype generated from the World championship, considered only third in popularity owing to the massive following compared to Olympic Games and the Football World Cup, automatically places emphasis on the Daegu team and many athletes will put their life on the line to make the cut to compete for the Sh5.4 million in prize money.

Kiplagat said the third athlete and gold medallist in the last edition of the games in Berlin can benefit from the coaches wild card criteria.

But for any athlete to be considered, he must have competed in the championship.

“There is a provision for the defending champion to get automatic ticket to Daegu. However, one must compete at the trials if he or she has to benefit from this,” said Kiplagat.

A total of 783 elite athletes will line up at the Nyayo National Stadium from Thursday to Saturday for the championship, with about 40 being selected to represent the country.

Participation in the championship is only through invitation, with Kenya Police bringing in the highest squad, while Eastern Province has the least entries at eight, all of whom are men.

Best talent

Kiplagat said it was important for Kenya to select the best talent as it seeks to improve on its performance at the last edition of the games, where it wound up third with 11 medals – four gold, five silver and two bronze behind winners USA with 22 (ten gold, six silver and six bronze) and Jamaica (seven gold, four silver and two bronze).

AK secretary general David Okeyo said seven countries will send their athletes to compete at the Kenyan national track and field championship.

The event has received interests from Seychelles, who have entered 50 athletes, Uganda, Sudan, Tanzania, Mali, Malawi and Zambia.

Okeyo said they have allowed limited entries from abroad in areas where they think Kenyans need to be pushed to register better results.

“We have allowed entries from Seychelles, who will have a full team of 50 athletes and Uganda will have 15 athletes, mostly sprinters.

“They will give our athletes enough competition and help them register faster times that can make them qualify for the world championship,” Okeyo said on Tuesday.

Among the top names expected will be World 800m record holder David Rudisha, who will be running for the first time on home soil this season.

This will be the fifth race for Rudisha this year after starting the season in Melbourne and Sydney, then got an ankle injury interruption, before resuming late last month in Nancy and Lausanne in the IAAF Diamond League.