Paul Tergat, one of the great names of cross country running, has been confirmed as a starter for the World Championship at Belfast on March 27th and 28th.
Tergat, who has dominated the championship for the last five years, is part of a talented Kenyan squad which promises to rewrite the standards of the sport in this country.
With full teams entered for all six events on the programme, Kenya's travelling party will amount to 48 athletes and officials, the biggest in an overseas influx which organisers admit will tax the city's infrastructure.
"Practically every hotel room in Belfast has been booked out but the necessary accommodation and transport arrangements will be put in place to ensure that that the championships are successful," said Noel Munnis, the event manager.
In all almost 800 athletes, representative of 70 countries from five continents, will take part in the most ambitious sporting event in Northern Ireland's history.
"This will be a truly global event and presents Northern Ireland with a fantastic opportunity, both from a sporting and economic perspective," said the chairman of the local organising committee, Brian Hanna.
The Irish teams will be selected after next Sunday's National Championship, sponsored by McDonnells, at Stranorlar where the men's championship may well provide a change of champion.
Seamus Power, embroiled in a difficult season after dominating domestic competition in recent years, is a doubtful starter because of `flu and in that situation, may have to depend on getting one of the optional places, when the selectors meet on Sunday evening to name their squad for Belfast.
It will not detract unduly from the quality of the race, however, as Dermot Donnelly, newly qualified to run for Ireland, seeks to achieve his biggest win, en route to the World Championships on his home terrain.
Martin McCarthy, Noel Berkeley and Noel Cullen will also be among the starters on a day when Mullingar, powered by Cormac Finnerty, Tom McGrath and the Burke brothers, will be favourites to take the team title.
Maureen Harrington must beat Una English and Valerie Vaughan, two of her team-mates in the Irish side which finished third in the World Championships in Turin, if she is to win the women's title for a third occasion.
