Kenyan coach confident young stars will shine

THE head coach of the Kenyan cross-country team is confident the conflict at home won't affect his charges.

Many Kenyans feel that the team going to Edinburgh this weekend are too young and inexperienced to handle veterans such as Ethiopia's multiple world champion Kenenisa Bekele and Eritrea's Zersenay Tadese, the defending champion. Weeks of violence that claimed at least 1,200 lives and uprooted more than 300,000 people following President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election on December 27 disrupted preparations.

"I know I have a young squad that has mainly graduated from the juniors into the senior category but they are the best we have for the task ahead," head coach Julius Kirwa said.

"As for the political problems, the less we think about them, the better," he added.

Kenya was once the dominant force at the world cross-country championships, winning the men's team title for 18 years in a row before surrendering it to Ethiopia in 2004.