Athletics: Giants Kiptoo and Kiprop to face off in Prisons cross-country at Uhuru Gardens

By JONATHAN KOMEN

Timothy Kiptoo wins last year’s cross-country race

Former Africa cross -country champion Timothy Kiptoo will be eyeing a rare hat-trick during the Kenya Prisons Championships at Uhuru Gardens on Saturday.

Little known Eunice Kioko, from Machakos, will also be eyeing the women’s silverware as the correctional department prepares to select its squad for the national trials.

Kioko, the mother of an eight-year-old child, displayed a never-say-die spirit to win last year’s showpiece in spectacular style.

The Prisons warders will rehearse on the relatively flat and fast course, which will host the Kenya Commercial Bank and Athletics Kenya national cross-country championships – also an IAAF Permit meeting – on February 15 at the Ngong Race course.

Kiptoo will take on Olympic 5,000m bronze medallist Thomas Longosiwa, who may be out to prove critics wrong after reacting late at the IAAF World Athletics Championships 5,000m final in Moscow last August.

Africa cross-country medallist John Mwangangi needs to be at his best to tackle a field that features 2007 World marathon champion Luke Kibet and world 1,500m silver medallist Silas Kiplagat.

But 2006 Commonwealth Games 1,500m sensation Jonathan Komen and Fredrick Musyoki, the seventh-placed at the Africa cross-country showpiece, will also spice up the line-up.

Former World Half Marathon champion Wilson Kiprop is also part of the field.

New talent Bernard Rotich is also expected to offer a mouth-watering clash in the chase for team spots to the national championships.

The Kenya Prisons meet brings together a bag of mixed talents, with Kibet staging his comeback after a career-threatening injury took the wind out of his sails.

Kibet, who won the Singapore Marathon in 2009, will use the spectacle to launch his campaign for a team slot to the Commonwealth Games marathon squad.

But he has Mwangangi, who won the IAAF World Half Marathon bronze medal in Kavarna, Bulgaria, in 2012, to reckon with.

Mwangangi, who was born and bred in Mwingi, finished second in the domestic KCB/AK cross-country circuit in Kericho early this month.

The runner, who emerged from Machakos’ Kwanthanze Primary School production chains, said he wanted to stretch his exploits beyond the seas.

Kiplagat, who is also the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, and his rural home neighbour Timothy Kiptoo, the 2012 KCB/AK cross-country jackpot winner, are others to watch.

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