World 3,000m steeplechase silver medalist trains eyes on Beijing Worlds

World 3,000m steeplechase silver medalist Conseslus Kipruto has started training with the aim to peak at the World Championships in Beijing in August.

Having threatened and almost toppled his mentor and World Champion Ezekiel Kemboi in Moscow back in 2013, Kipruto hopes to emerge with an enhanced reputation when he lines up at the Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing.

Of course, he is alive to the fact that there is the small matter of making it through the explosive Kenyan trials.

The 20-year-old Kipruto showed his class and commitment in the run-up to the Moscow Worlds. He has also confirmed that it will not be business as usual in the gold hunting irrespective of the opposition.

"I am back and looking forward to the World Championships. I don't fear anyone and having been out due to injury, I'm glad to be back. My worst enemy is myself because I set high standards that I have to beat," Kipruto told Feverpitch.

His arrival on the international stage confirmed that Kenya's production lines in the water and hurdle event are still active. Kipruto first grabbed international headlines when, aged 17, he won the 2011 World Youth Championships in Lille, France. He proved his class a year later when he won at the Barcelona World Junior Championships.

He won the Diamond League Trophy in 2013, beating Kemboi in Eugene (US) and Oslo (Norway).

Kipruto is back in training after a one-year hamstring injury lay-off, which he picked in the 2013 Brussels Diamond League meeting.

"I was running in Brussels and in the last lap the pain had really increased and I struggled to finish," he said.

Following treatment in the Netherlands, Kipruto regrets missing the World cross-country selections earlier in the year, but now wants to concentrate on preparing for the World Championships.

"I recovered fully from the injury in November. But I started training in December because I didn't want to risk straining it, which is why I opted out of cross-country," he said.