Athletes chase tickets

By Mutwiri Mutuota

A decade since his swansong World Cross in Vilamoura, Portugal in 2000, Paul Tergat still walks to Kenyan Trials with his head above all shoulders.

Should the former men’s marathon record holder stride into Uhuru Gardens this morning for the (March 38) World Cross tickets scramble, he will pay rapt attention when Athletics Kenya (AK) secretary general David Okeyo’s booming voice calls out the Poland bound men’s 12km squad.

For the 11th year running, AK will declare athletes who will assemble at Kigari Teachers Training College in Embu to plot on how to erase Tergat’s long stretch as the last Kenyan winner of the men’s long race individual title.

When Tergat won his historic fifth successive World Cross senior men’s individual gold, few imagined a country ordained as a distance-running powerhouse would be awaiting her next champion a decade later.
The start list of today’s 12km men’s race for KCB/AK National Cross Country Championships cum 16th IAAF Permit Meet reads like a roll-call of the world’s finest mid and long distance athletes.

However, unlike last year when local hype masters and international pundits boldly predicted an end of Kenya’s 12km individual title drought after Kenenisa pulled out of Amman, expectations a successor to Tergat will be unearthed this morning remain checked.

At Uhuru Gardens, all eyes will be on Leonard Komon, 22, the 2008 silver winner and fourth finisher last year who has assumed a personal mission of landing the 12km title for his country.

Komon, who was injured before Amman where he competed as a wildcard, once again emerged as the first Kenyan across the line as his team-mates imploded.

Youngster Mathew Kosirio will also be lurking in the shadows.

After today’s riveting men’s 12km race, four finishers across the line will gain automatic entry and a couple of wildcards will face an even harder task of overcoming Tergat’s shadow. Could a fit Komon be the answer?