Fireworks are expected when a number of Japan-based elite athletes come face-to-face with their local counterparts during the Central Region Cross Country championships in Ol Kalou, Nyandarua County tomorrow.

The competition will be staged at the Ol Kalou Arboretum ground in Nyandarua County, where the host county is expected to dominate all the categories.

In the senior men 10 kilometre race, the elite athletes led by World Cross Country medallist and renown athlete Bedan Karoki and former Under-17 bronze medallist Stanley Waithaka will face full force of local legion led by fast-rising Emmanuel Kiprop, winner of the January 9 Ol Kalou leg of the three-leg Athletics Kenya Cross Country meeting.

Karoki and Waithaka are among Japan based athletes from the Central Region who are currently at home on their annual holiday.

Speaking earlier to People Sport, Karoki had indicated that he would use the Regional championship as part of his “training for RAK Half marathon”.

But now that the lucrative Middle East half marathon has been cancelled due to Covid-19, he will have to change his mind and go for a win to book a ticket to the National Cross Country championships set for February 13, at the Jockey Club, Ngong Race Course in Nairobi.

Spectators, led by Nyandarua governor Francis Kimemia should expect a scintillating three-horse battle between Karoki, Waithaka and Kiprop who will be meeting at senior level in the same race for the first time.