It’s time to defend title: Jelimo and Ndiwa to fly police flag in trials

10000m runner Alice Aprot in training session ahead of Rio Olympics 2016 at Kipchoge Stadium in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County on July 21, 2016.[PHOTO:DENNIS OKEYO/STANDARD]

AK to pick squad at Lotto National Cross Country Championships on Saturday.

There will be no love lost when top guns lock horns at the Lotto National cross country trials at Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi on Saturday.

There are plenty of mouth-watering clashes on the cards as National Police Service cross country champion Stasy Ndiwa, a police constable, leads fellow cops in staging arrests. Hellen Obiri marshals Kenya Defence Forces troops while Africa 10,000m champion Alice Aprot of Kenya Prisons Service prepare to send to jail her opponents.

Automatic slots

The sudden loss of affection will hardly come as a surprise to the athletes as they battle for 24 automatic slots for the first six across the line and every athlete will long to finish within the bracket.

After years of playing the understudy, a legion of young athletes who have graduated into the senior ranks are threatening to seize the moment and secure the prized tickets to the fifth Africa Cross Country Championships set for Chlef, Algeria, on March 17.

Aprot, the reigning Africa cross country champion, is keen to stop her opponents.

 “I will be glad to defend my title. At the moment I am nursing a knee injury. But I hope it will heal before the trials on Saturday,” she said.

Victory for Aprot, the younger sister of 2010 World Cross Country Champion Joseph Ebuya, would offer her a reprieve. She dropped out of Munyaka Secondary School near Nyahururu for lack of school fees and decided to concentrate on athletics.

“In 2010, I made the team to the World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada, where I won bronze. I received some cash rewards from the Government which helped me pay my school fees in Form One and Form Two,” said Aprot, an alumnus of Losokwo Primary School in Nyahururu, said in a past interview.

The fifth-born then travelled to Eldoret to practise athletics and the results have been amazing. She has the Africa cross country 8km bronze and gold (Kampala, 2014 and Cameroon, 2016) respectively, 2015 All Africa Games 5,000m (bronze) and 10,000m (gold), and Africa 10,000m gold she won in a championship record in 2016.

Head coach John Kimetto is well aware of the tough fight ahead. “I am well aware the battle between the top stars and the upcoming athletes will not be no easy. We hope to pick a strong team. We are in the final stages of preparation. I’m aware some of our stars are not keen to go for the Africa Cross Country Championships, so we expect new faces,” he said.