TOP GUNS BATTLE: Big show as police stage national Cross Country race

Kenya's Mercy Cherono (R) and Kenya's Margaret Muriuki lead the pack during the final of the women's 5000m athletics event at Hampden Park during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland on August 2, 2014. AFP PHOTO / ANDREJ ISAKOVIC

Action galore is expected when elite athletes battle at the National Police Service cross country meeting at Ngong Race Course on Saturday.

But cross country enthusiasts will, however, miss scintillating actions of world cross country champions Vivian Cheruiyot and Geoffrey Kamworor.

Vivian won world cross country junior and senior titles in 2000 and 2011 while Kamworor won it in 2011 and 2015. Both hail from Keiyo South.

Vivian, who struck silver and gold medals in the Olympics last year, has trained her sights on marathon debut this April.

“I am yet to know whether I will compete in London or Paris marathons. But I am preparing for marathon,” said Vivian, an Inspector of Police attached to Directorate of Criminal Investigations.

Kamworor, who started running as a student at Lelboinet Secondary School in Keiyo South, longs to defend his title at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Kampala, Uganda, on March 26.

“I am focusing now on the trials. I really want to make the team,” he said.

That will not water down the police cross country meet –often billed as the temple of track running in Kenya.

Commonwealth Games 5,000m champion Mercy Cherono and two-time world marathon champion Edna Kiplagat will lead the onslaught at the lush green and well-manicured cross-country circuit.

Edna is celebrating 21 years of international athletics since winning a silver medal at the World Junior Championships in Sydney, Australia, in 1996 while in Standard Eight at Kapkoi Primary School in Keiyo North.

The even, which provides an opportunity for Cheruiyot to size up other world beaters, also sets the stage for the IAAF World Athletics Championships in London on August 4-13.