By Bismarck Mutahi

Veteran 400m runner Vincent Mumo will shift gears to the 800m after the World Athletics Championships in Berlin next month.

Mumo said he has been running the one lap race for close to ten years and it was high time he tried his luck in the two-lap race.

He said he has found out that running the 400m at altitude was difficult.

"I have been running the 400m for long and I feel I should leave it to other upcoming runners so that they can see what they can also achieve," Mumo said.

He said he ran 800m in Switzerland in 2006 and his time of one minute 47.2 seconds encouraged him to change races after Berlin.

The Armed Forces runner, however, has to book a place in the Berlin team in the national trials tomorrow before thinking of changing races.

The 27-year-old said he has fully recovered from an injury that locked him out of the National Championships and was ready to win the one lap race tomorrow.

"I want to bow out of the 400m race with a bang and that should start on Saturday when I book an automatic ticket to Berlin," the runner told Feverpitch on Thursday. Mumo has been training for the Trials alongside other Armed Forces runners although he has also participated in a number of Grand Prix races.

He was the pace maker at the IAAF Golden League meeting in Rome where he paced fellow countryman Asbel Kiprop to victory.

"The pace setting that I have done has given me an assurance that I am in shape to compete at the trials," Mumo said.

He has already hit the World Championships qualifying mark of 45:55 after running 45:31 in Beijing last year and will only need to win tomorrow to be assured of a place in the team.

He, however, says it is not going to be easy as there are other top names even though his long time rival Ezra Sambu of Kenya Police will not be competing.

Sambu, a former national champion and Olympian has not been able to make a return to competitive action since picking an injury although he is said to be also thinking of changing to the 800m.

Mumo picked on national champion Thomas Musembi as his main threat tomorrow after the Prisons runner beat a strong field at the National championships.

Apart from Musembi, Mumo said fellow teammate at the Armed Forces Jonathan Mutai is also capable of winning.

Also lining up to pick one of the two slots to Berlin in the one lap race is United States based student Anderson Mureta, who won the 200m at the national championships.