Spoiling for fight: Champion Kamworor targets victory at World Cross in Guiyang

Geoffrey kipsang Kamworor (right) and Leonard Barsoton competes in 12km senior men race during the IAAF Permit/KCB National Cross Country Championship at Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi on 14-02-2014.PHOTO/DENNIS OKEYO

Former World Cross-Country junior champion Geoffrey Kipsang Kamworor is confident Kenya will retain the 12-kilometre men's title at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Guiyang, China, on March 28.

Kipsang, who started running when he was a student at Lelboinet Secondary School in Keiyo South, said he is in great shape and hopes team work will lift Kenya into glory.

The 22-year-old police officer, who finished second at the national trials behind Bedan Karoki, said they are ready to stop any potential aggression.

"We will develop a winning formula for World Cross. I have set the right focus and hope it will work out," Kipsang said in a telephone interview from Kigari in Embu yesterday.

The athlete, who attended Chepsamo Primary School in Keiyo South, upset the odds in the 2011 World Cross in Punta Umbria, Spain, when he arrived two days late, because of a visa hitch, and went on to claim the junior championships.

"I went to Spain without experience. And now I have learned the tactics well. I will give it my best," said Kipsang, who trains at Global Sports Communications in Kaptagat under Dutch agent Jos Hermens.

Kamworor could re-enact his gun-to-tape front running style in Guiyang.

"I feel good with the front runs. I would love to appear at the world cross-country as a senior with an impressive performance. I missed the 2013 edition, which I felt I must prove my worth to Kenyans," said Kamworor.

He will team up with Bedan Karoki, World Cross junior silver medalist Leonard Barsoton, World Junior 5,000m bronze medalist Moses Mukono, Philip Lang'at and Joseph Kiptum.

Kamworor had unbridled love for athletics from his childhood but haboured no interest in full-time athletics.

"I used to train in athletics hoping it will enable me to get a scholarship to USA and pursue a degree in law. That was purely for my ardent love of English. I did well in my class," said Kamworor, an alumnus of Lelboinet Secondary School together with Kenyan-turned-Qatari Albert Chepkurui.

It's from this background that Kamworor took up an acting role in a movie dubbed, 'Unknown Runner' that catalogues his meteoric rise to marathon running.

"I love movies and film. And that's why I chose to act in the 'Unknown Runner' movie," said Kamworor.

He lacked confidence in athletics and was afraid locals would mock him while he was training and this at first hindered full-time training.

Kamworor would win the inter-class competitions in school and take a low profile thereafter.

As a young boy, he would sneak from home over the weekends to the nearby Kapkenda Girls High School, where he peeped through the fence to watch athletes train, including former Olympic 1,500m champion Nancy Jebet Lagat, former world 3,000m champion Veronica Nyaruai and former world cross-country silver medalist Prisca Jepleting.