NAIROBI, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- World junior 5,000m champion Beatrice Chebet and Samuel Chebole will lead Kenya's youth team to the World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark.
Chebet and Chebole braved a strong challenge from unpredictable colleagues to win both the national championships and ticketS to the Kenya team to the World Cross Country Championships, which will be held on March 30.
Speaking in Eldoret, Chebet said she had high hopes of making it through the explosive Kenya trials. Chebet trains together with Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Chepng'etich and said she had no worries over the caliber of competition as she had done enough in training and believed in her strength despite the strenuous course.
"The obstacles were a challenge and I had to surge forward so that I can beat a challenging field which I knew were after me," Chebet said on Saturday in Eldoret.
She won the race in 20:02:4 edging out Betty Chepkemboi, who came in second clocking 20:31:2 while Jackline Rotich settled for third place in 20:39:9 with Agnes Mwikali next in 20:42:4 to claim the top four automatic spots in the team.
Chebet said she is happy to have won the race and got the ticket to Denmark. The wild card tickets went to Lydia Jeruto and Mercy Chepkorir.
"Winning this race has given me a chance to represent Kenya once again. I want to thank my coach who really helped me get for this race," said Chebet.
Chepkemboi said that she was happy to have come in second place.
"I had done good training ahead of this race and I'm happy I have made the team for the World Cross Country Championships," said Chepkemboi.
In the junior boys race, Samuel Chebole clocked 24:09:8, beating Emmanuel Kiprotich who timed 24:17:7 for second place while 3,000m steeplechase silver medalist in world junior championship Leonard Bett finished third in 24:25:0. Edwin Koskey was fourth in 24:26:0. The two wild cards went to Charles Karuri and Kibet Kandie. Chebole said he had done his homework well and is happy to break into the Kenya team for the first time and hope to win the country gold in Denmark.
"I want to thank my brother Ronald Kwemoi, who runs the 1,500m race, for having helped me in training and even encouraged me earlier today before I left for the race," said Chebole.
