The 44th World Cross Country Championships gets underway at Mount Panorama in Bathurst, Australia, this morning. Some 30 Kenyans are among the more than 400 athletes from the globe chasing glory.
This is the first athletics outing for Kenyan national team this season - coming after hosting a successful Kip Keino Classic, the Nairobi World Athletics Continental Tour last year.
We will parade a blend of young and experienced squad in Australia, well aware that our neighbours Uganda and Ethiopia have equally strong teams.
As luck may have it, we have always had an edge over the two nations in the history of World Cross Country Championships.
Two-time world cross country champion Geoffrey Kamworor and former world 21km record holder Kibiwott Kandie, 2017 world cross country champion Irene Cheptai and Commonwealth Games 5000m champion Beatrice Chebet will lead the Kenyan onslaught. We have a strong team to this global outing.
But there is a tough duel in the men's race. Ugandans in world 10,000m champion Joshua Cheptegei and world cross country silver medalist Jacob Kiplimo are expected to give Kenyan men a real run for their money. The two athletes have given our men's team a real battle in past competitions.
We dominated the World Cross Country Championships charts for a decade - between 1993 and 2003 - in what set us apart from our arch-rivals Ethiopia.
After hosting the 2017 edition of biennial showpiece, Ugandans kept holding a firm grip on the senior men's title thanks to Cheptegei and Kiplimo.
It is time we now turn the tables and stage good shows. Our women teams have endured such difficult moments at the World Cross Country Championships. While the men's teams ruled the roost between 1993 and 2003, our senior women failed to impress.
It was only Hellen Chepng'eno who set a gold drought as she won in 1994 and our women had to wait until 2009 when Florence Kiplagat won in Amman, Jordan.
Kenya has won eight individual senior women's titles and expected to re-affirm their supremacy Australia. We hope our team has picked inspiration from five-time World Cross Country winner Paul Tergat, who is the ambassador of this championships in Australia.
Tergat opened his five-year reign as senior men's champion in 1995 ahead of team mate Ismael Kirui and then Tergat floated to victory in the senior men's race, finishing 12 seconds clear of Morocco's Salah Hissou. He then won in 1997, 1998 and 1999. That was a superb performance.
With the quality of the squad, the World Cross Country contest in Australia will offer our team a perfect ground to stop the Ugandan aggression. As Kenyans, let's wake up and cheer our stars!
