ATHLETICS: Rhonex, Kamworor set for epic clash in Eldoret

Geoffrey Kamworor during The National Police Service Cross Country Championship at Ngong Race Course onSaturday Jan 26, 2019. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

The adrenaline levels are running high as the IAAF Permit meeting/national cross country trials -which will be held outside Nairobi for the second time in history -approaches.

Big shots now tune up their form ahead of selections to the 43rd IAAF World Cross Country Championships set for Aarhus, Denmark, on March 30.

The showpiece, scheduled for Eldoret Sports Club on February 23, puts to test the maxim on whether Eldoret town stands out as the undisputed ‘City of Champions’ –or, at best, the world’s athletics superpower.

Just about every world beater in athletics who readily comes to mind –from the legendary Kipchoge Keino to world marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge –calls this part of the country home.

This is where speed meets endurance; where budding athletes nurture their skills and where races are planned and executed with military precision.

Kenyan trials are notorious for producing hitherto unknowns, who often treat established world-class stars with disdain and this year’s contest cannot be ruled out.

These top stars expect to experience the most competitive event in recent times.  And the clash between two-time world cross country champion Geoffrey Kamworor and Rhonex Kipruto, the second fastest man in 10km in history, promises a mouth-watering battle.

After posting his sixth win at the National Police Service Championships last weekend, Kamworor says he expects a tough duel.

“It will a tough race. But trials is a different ball game. It depends on an athletes’ preparedness. I am prepared and long to make the team and win a third title at the World Cross Country,” he said.

Kamworor has been consistent on the track, cross country and marathon since winning the junior title in Punta Umbria, Spain, in 2011.

He won World Cross Country titles in Guiyang (2015) and Kampala (2017) and three IAAF World Half Marathon crowns in Copenhagen (2014), Cardiff (2016) and Valencia (2028) as well as winning New York Marathon (2017) and runner up last year.

In 2016 World Half Marathon contest, Kamworor took a fall along Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff and picked up to upstage among others Britain’s multiple track Olympic Mo Farah.

He will now battle 19-year-old Rhonex Kipruto, whose 27:08 run in New York City’s Central Park last April was the fastest performance over the distance since Komon’s world record.

He followed up in July by taking the world U20 title on the track over 10,000m, and then returned to the roads in Prague in September, the setting where he produced his shocking break-out performance the year before, clocking 27:13. Once again, he confirmed his status as one of the planet’s most promising distance runners after a dominating 26:46 victory, the second fastest performance of all-time.

Last year he was undefeated in three 10,000m track races in Kenya, with the fastest being a 28:56 at altitude. Then in his only European race, he ran 27:13 for a surprising third on the roads in Prague in September. Last year, he ran three under-20 cross country races and finished second at the Kenyan U20 trials to make the Kenyan team for the African Cross country Championships, which he won.