Kenyan authorities have beefed up security ahead of the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Cross Country Championships starting in the coastal city of Mombasa.
Mombasa police boss, Wilfred Mbithi, said on Wednesday the security agencies have mounted aerial, sea and foot patrols in readiness for the 35th edition of the IAAF World Cross Country
Championships to ensure maximum security during the event.
"We have intensify our patrols and deployed hundreds of police and sniffer dogs as well as horse mounted security patrols to make the event successful," Mbithi said by telephone from Mombasa.
He said criminal activities have decreased drastically following the intensified patrols.
The east African nation is out to allay fears the global athletics event in the port city of Mombasa could be the target of an "unspecified terrorist attack" cited in a U.S. travel alert
last month.
There will be four races, one for men, women, junior men and junior women respectively. All races encompass both individual and team competition.
The short race for men and women that was run between 1998 and 2006 is now scrapped and the World Cross Country Championships are back to one-day format.
Analysts say stiff competition will be expected from Kenya's neighbors -- Tanzania, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Uganda.
Boniface Kiprop, fourth over 10,000m at both the Athens Olympics and 2005 World Championships, leads the Ugandan squad, joined by Moses Kipsiro, the 10,000m African champion.
This season, Kipsiro took a close win in Belfast and was narrowly beaten in a photo finish in LeMans. Tanzanian hopes will
be led by cross country, track and road veterans John Yuda, a two-time World Half Marathon Championships bronze medallist, and Fabiano Joseph, the 2005 World Half Marathon champion Fabiano Joseph, who was second in Belfast and a solid fourth in Edinburgh.
But all eyes, as well as all expectations, will clearly be focused on Kenenisa Bekele, who has managed to make history in each of his five previous appearances at these championships.
Bekele, who has won five consecutive long and short course races, had promised to quit cross-country running after the 2006 World Championships. However, he changed his mind and will compete in Mombasa after all.
Eritrea, second in the long course team race last year, will be led by Zersenay Tadesse, the reigning World Road Running champion.
Fourth last year and the silver medallist the year before, the 25-year-old will be counting on a trio of his 2006 teammates who
all finished in the top-10 last year to keep the pressure on Ethiopia - Yonas Kifle, Ali Abdallah, and Tesfayohannes Mesfen.