NAIROBI, Kenya, February 12, 2025 – World record holder for the women’s 10km, Agnes Jebet, will be the star attraction at this year’s Sirikwa Classic World Cross Country Tour on February 22 in Eldoret.
Jebet says she is looking forward to competing in her first cross country competition in a long time.
“This race will be a perfect opportunity for me to prepare for the upcoming season. It has been some time since I last ran a cross country race and I can’t wait to compete in this one. I am confident it will be a huge success,” the 25-year-old said.
Jebet will be hoping to pick up from her dominant showing last year, where she grabbed the headlines in the road races in which she competed.
The highlight was at the Valencia Ibercaja 10km race in January where she clocked a world record of 28:46 to cross the finish line in first place.
In October, she came close to dislodging Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey as the fastest woman in the world half marathon when she clocked 1:02:52 at the Valencia Marathon.
As far as cross country is concerned, the 2023 Lille Half Marathon champion last ran at the world championships in March last year where she clocked 31:27 to finish fourth in the senior women’s 10km race.
She is refreshed and raring to go for more glory in 2025, saying that the Sirikwa Classic will be the apt launching pad for that.
“I am ready to push the limits because I believe there is more to come from me. I don’t want to stop at the 10km world record because I am confident I am capable of. I urge all the competitors to register for this event so that it can be a huge success,” Jebet said.
The fourth edition of the competition will be held at the Lobo Village in Eldoret where the hundreds of athletes will be battling for top honours in five categories of competition.
They include senior men and women’s 10km, Under 20 men’s 8km, Under 20 women’s 6km, and kids’ athletics.
Big Boost
Speaking at the media launch for the event, Athletics Kenya (AK) president Lt Gen (Rtd) Jack Tuwei urged Kenyans to turn up in their numbers for the material day of competition.
“To all Kenyans, come and watch the best of this world. You don’t normally get the double Olympic champion (Beatrice Chebet) and world record holder (Agnes Jebet) competing in the same race,” Tuwei said.
Meet director Barnaba Korir said the competition will not only be about elite athletes but also nurturing future superstars of the country.
“One of the standouts will be the kids athletics were we are working with primary schools around to have the kids compete as a curtain raiser for the competition. At the elite level, we have a number of foreign athletes who have expressed interest to compete and we will soon release their names,” Korir said.
The competition has been boosted by a Ksh 11 million sponsorship from Absa Kenya.
Announcing the sponsorship, the bank’s regional manager, Julius Songok, said that athletes are the epitome of the Kenyan story.
“It is through stories of our athletes like Eliud Kipchoge that we are inspired and want to relate with such stories. We believe every story matters and this has been demonstrated through our athletes. We believe every story matters and this has been demonstrated through our athletes. We have a long term role to support sports because of the role it plays in the society,” Songok said.
He added the bank’s commitment to growing sports in the country as has been their norm for so many years.
“We have a long term role to support sports because of the role it plays in the society. It is for this reason we have decided to once again partner with Athletics Kenya and the government. We are coming back in a bigger than previously,” he said.
In the senior categories, winners will pocket approximately Ksh 780,000 as second-place and third-place finishers receive an estimated Ksh 650,000 and Ksh 520,000 respectively.
The first 15 finishers will be awarded.
On the other hand, victors in the Under 20 races will earn Ksh 162,000 as the second and third-place finishers pocket Ksh 130,000 and Ksh 104,000 respectively.
The top 10 finishers in these categories will be rewarded.
Slightly tweaked course
At the same time, technical director Ibrahim Hussein says they have made slight changes to the course in consideration of the athletes’ welfare and those of the fans.
“Thank you for giving us the opportunity to host this event. The start point is still the same as last year but we will put it back slightly to accommodate the many number of athletes that will have registered. Just by the VIP, we will have some showers due to the hot weather. This has been borrowed from the Great Chepsaita Cross Country,” Hussein said.
He added: “Athletes will be happy because there will be a shower and a dip. This is one of the areas they had talked about last year. The finish area will be entertaining…thankfully, it has been raining and so this year, there will be minimal dust in that area because of the growth of grass.
The competition will be the last World Athletics (WA) gold label race this season as far as cross country is concerned.
