Preparations are at the peak as county government of Uasin Gishu prepares to host the much anticipated National Cross Country Championships cum IAAF World Cross Country trials.
The event has been scheduled to be held at the Eldoret Sports Club on Saturday.
It the first time the World Cross Country trials are being held outside Nairobi in the country’s history and Uasin Gishu is definitely the luckiest county to host the event.
As part of the preparation, Mediheal Group of Hospitals have prepared statues of popular and athletics world champions Ezekiel Kemboi and Vivian Cheruiyot.
The statues are set to be unveiled on Friday, a day before the historical event.
“Statues of World and Olympic champions Ezekiel Kemboi and Vivian Cheruiyot will be unveiled in Eldoret on Friday, a day before the National Cross Country Championships are held at Eldoret Sports Club. The unveiling of the statues that have been prepared by Mediheal hospital will take place at 12.30pm on Friday at the junction of Nairobi, Nandi and Kaptagat road,” reads a post by a popular Facebook user, Lemiso Sato Emmanuel, who also shared a picture of the yet to ye to be unveiled statue.
A screenshot of Lemiso Sato Emmanuel's post on Facebook. [Source/Lennie Croozy]
Kemboi who recently ditched steeplechase for the marathon is an athlete whose trainings are based in Eldoret town. He won Olympic 3,000m steeplechase title twice and World Championships four times.
On her part, Cheruiyot is a track queen who has won several titles and holds the Kenyan record and Commonwealth record for the 5000 m with her best time of 14:20.89, which was set at the DN Galanin 2011.
In 2018, she won the London Marathon with a time of 2:18:31 and finished second in the New York City Marathon.