Athletics Kenya Agnes Tirop Memorial World Cross Country Tour Local Organising Committee has started preparations for a successful event set for February 12 in Eldoret.

On Tuesday, the team visited the venue that will stage the event at the Lobo Village in Kapseret, the outskirts of Eldoret town where the top class runners will be competing.

The race was named Agnes Tirop Memorial World Cross country Tour to celebrate the fallen ex-world cross country champion Agnes Tirop, who was killed last month.

AK Vice president in charge of competitions Paul Mutwii, who led the contingent to the venue, said: “This was a good plan to host such a big event in Africa and as a nation, we are happy to host the first edition of World Athletic Tour.”

“Cross country it gives room for creativity to create the course which we are going to start to mark the course in two day’s time, as you have seen the course is wide and scenic,” Technical Director Ibrahim Hussein.

“Right now, the experts are marking and designing the course which we are going to sit down and deliberate on. We expect the event to host top cream athletes because there will be no world cross country next year.”

The sentiments were echoed by AK Central Rift region chairman Abraham Mutai, who said the event will be good for the local athlete to get an opportunity to run in a world event.

“As you well know, World Cross Country has been postponed up to 2023, this will be a good opportunity for athletes to participate and we will also be hosting our national cross country trials at the same venue,” said Mutai.