Team Kenya athletes before departing Bathurst, Australia, on February 20, 2023 after winning the overall title at the 44th World Athletics Cross Country Championships.
Athletics Kenya (AK) is keeping their cards close to their chest as they prepare to select Team Kenya for the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Kujawy Pomorze, Poland, which will take place from March 20 to 22.
Performances at the World Athletics Indoor Tour in Europe and the US, as well as the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), will inform the selection, which could be announced within days.
World Athletics gave Kenya six slots, an allocation informed by their performance at the 2025 Nanjing Championships in China, where they failed to win a medal, hence the small number of slots.
It remains to be seen how AK’s department of competitions and technical, headed by senior deputy president Paul Mutwii, will approach the selection process. Each country will have two athletes in each track event, except for the 4x400m relay.
Portugal’s Patricia Silva, Kenya’s Lilian Odira, Uganda’s Halimah Nakaayi and Ethiopia’s Habitam Alemu race in the women’s 800 m - heat one of the World Athletics Indoor Championships at Nanjing Youth Olympic Sports Park, Nanjing, China .
However, what is notable is that a number of Kenyan athletes have put in some incredible performances on the World Athletics Tour, making a strong case for selection.
“We are talking to those who have qualified about their availability. More athletes could still qualify,” said Mutwii, adding they will require clearance from the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya and the AIU before informing the athletes.
Six women, led by world 1500m silver medallist Dorcus Ewoi and Kip Keino Classic 400m champions Mercy Oketch and Gladys Chepngetich, who have just broken national records, have met the entry requirements for their events.
However, only two men have attained entry standards in their races: the 2022 world indoor 800m silver medallist, Noah Kibet; and Festus Lagat in the 1,500m. Five more men can make it through their superior world ranking. These include the Commonwealth Games 100m champion, Ferdinand Omanyala, who has struggled in this year’s World Indoor Tour.
Kenya's Susan Lokayo Ejore in action during the Women's 1500m Heat 1 race during the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China on March 21, 2025.
Ewoi, the 29-year-old who grabbed the limelight when she won silver at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo last year, won the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 24 with a time of 4:01.22. She beat the qualifying standard of 4:06.00.
Next in the 1,500 metres after Ewoi is Susan Ejore, aged 30, who has a good world ranking of 17th in the metric mile race, for which 30 entries are required for the world event. Both Ewoi and Ejore are based in the US.
Oketch broke the 400m indoor national record for the third time this year when she won at the Meeting Metz Moselle Athlétor Crédit Mutuel in France in 51.53 on February 8.
Should she be selected, Oketch will make history as only the second Kenyan to compete in the 400m at the World Indoor Championships, following in the footsteps of the legendary sprinter Esther Kavaya, who competed in the second edition of the event in Indianapolis, USA, in 1987.
Chepngetich, who is also based in the US, broke the 800m indoor national record by setting a new time of 1:58.81 at the 2026 John Thomas Terrier Classic in Boston, Massachusetts, on Friday.
Despite settling for third place, Chepngetich beat the previous record of 1:58.83 that was held by Pamela Jelimo for 13 years.
Rosemary Longisa also met the entry standard of 2:00.90 in the 800m after clocking 1:59.71 to take second place at the Husky Classic in Washington on Valentine’s Day.
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