Athletes throw themselves into action during Kass Marathon on Sunday morning

By JONATHAN KOMEN

Agnes Jepkosgei trains for Kass Marathon in Iten recently. She will be defending her 42km women’s title. [PHOTO: PETER OCHIENG’/STANDARD]

Finally, the time has come. After verbal jousting, the planets in the athletics universe have aligned this morning and the stars are set to collide in the most spectacular fashion imaginable.

Only birds are awake at this God’s forsaken hour when thousands of upcoming athletes line up against the world’s road running exponents at the seventh Marathon run at the starting point near Kapsabet town.

And minutes later, the tall lean runners begin an impossibly brilliant battle under the enchanted gaze of thousands lining up along the Kapsabet-Eldoret Road.

But millions more will be watching on KTN live broadcast to catch the action.

Dreams will come true; others will turn into nightmares. More than 7,000 athletes’ upcoming and elite athletes will battle for top honours.

Men’s and women’s defending champions Weldon Kirui and Agnes Jepkosgei need to be at their best to break the jinx –secure successful title defence bids.

stunned athletes

The Bomet-based Kirui, who stunned the athletics heartland of North Rift last year, is keen to become the first two-time winner in the race.

“I am ready for the big battle. I want to the first man to win Kass Marathon twice,” said Kirui.

But Jepkosgei, who won Kimbilio Marathon in Eldoret, Will also be gunning for a second bite at the cherry and, perhaps break the race jinx. Kass Marathon has never had a successful title defence bid.

“Right now, I have cut down my walk outs and training sessions ahead of the Kass Marathon. I want to be the first person to defend the 42km race,” said the Kapsabet-based Jepkosgei.

SHARPEN MYSELF

Jepkosgei, third at the Standard Chartered Marathon in Nairobi a fortnight ago, went: “I entered Standard Chartered to sharpen myself for Kass race. I want to give it my best here.”

The Kass Marathon run, which has honed Kenya’s world beating marathoners, promises a cocktail of hopes and intrigue, as it always does.

The race will see runners criss-cross Nandi and Uasin Gishu counties to finish in Eldoret Town. Kass Marathon certainly plays in the big league of world’s well-heeled 42km contests in which Kenyan athletes keep claiming a bigger slice of the glory.

Geoffrey Mutai, who posted the world’s fastest unofficial time of 2:03.02 in Boston last year, finished second at the inaugural Kass Marathon showdown in 2007.

Mutai was motivated by the performance and went ahead to groom some of village boys to compete in Kass Marathon. They include newly crowned Chicago Marathon winner Dennis Kimetto.

Winners take home Sh1.5m,  runners-up Sh500,000 third place-finishers Sh250,000 and prizes trickle down to the tenth finisher while US$5,000 for the first foreign athlete to cross the line.

Security officers from Nandi and Uasin Gishu counties will be on the ground as the road will be closed for the better part of the morning.  —[email protected]