A total of 674 athletes from 118 member federations will compete at the 2026 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Kujawy Pomorze, in Torun, Poland.
Kenya will be represented by eight athletes, namely, Brian Tinega (men's 400m), Noah Kibet (men's 800m), Festus Lagat (men's 1,500 m), Jacob Krop (men's 3,000m), Mercy Oketch (women's 400m), Galdys Chepngetich (women's 800m), Rosemary Longisa (women's 800m) and Susan Ejore (women's 1,500m).
Kenya's Noah Kibet celebrates winning the men's 800m event during the World Athletics Diamond League Doha meeting at the Khalifa International stadium in the Qatar capital on May 13, 2022.
While the quality of the Kenyan entry list over the years has never been in doubt, most established stars from the country have tended to keep away, preferring to focus on outdoor competitions.
This can be attributed to the fact that most Kenyan athletes train at high altitude areas on open roads and trails, as there are no indoor facilities to speak about, unlike in Europe and the USA.
Indoor running tracks are typically 200m in length and usually feature four to six runners compared to the 400m, eight-lane outdoor track.
Running on indoor track thus requires a different kind of pacing, stride rhythm and tactics.
Also, the timing for the indoor season works against Kenya's elite athletics as it takes place between January and March, which clashes with base training for the outdoor season.
Kenyan athletes prefer to build endurance during this period rather than peaking early for the indoor races.
Experienced Kenyan coach Bernard Ouma, founder and CEO of Rongai Athletics Club, concurs and adds that many Kenyans athletes shun Indoor because of unfamiliarity and injury risks.
Ouma, who handled 2019 and 2017 men's world 1,500 champions Timothy Cheruiyot and Elijah Manangoi, respectively, among others, reckons that Kenya does not need to build indoor facilities because the country does not have a winter season and athletes can train outdoors all year long.
“Many of our athletes prefer outdoor to indoor because, running indoors, one is prone to injuries due to the tight turns and softer running surfaces, in addition to the jostling for positions in the small space. That is why senior, established athletes will prefer natural outdoor running,” said Ouma.
National 400m record holder Mercy Adongo Oketch during the interview in Ngong on June 4, 2025.
Photo credit: Chris Omollo | Nation Media Group
He also touched on the climatic mismatch, where athletes in regions that experience winter tend to train indoors throughout the year, and it gives them an advantage against Kenyan athletes unfamiliar with the conditions.
Naomi Korir, the 2021 Silesia World Relay Championships 2x2x400m silver medallist, says it as she knows it.
“The track is short, and while competing, you have to bend somehow, and one needs to have trained for it. You have to be very careful because you might even fall with a small distraction,” said Korir.
She would know. She represented Kenya at the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, reaching the women’s 800m semi-finals. Two years later, she featured in the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, and was knocked out in the heats as her compatriot Mary Moraa went on to win the gold medal in the 800m.
But with the influx of Kenyan students to universities in the US, where indoor facilities abound, the situation may change.
Gladys Chepngetich, undergraduate student at Clemson University in South Carolina, during a past competition.
Photo credit: Courtesy
The 24-year-old Chepngetich recently won the National Collegiate Athletic Association Indoor Track and Field Championships women’s 800m in a time of 2:00.01, and earlier in the year broke the Kenyan indoor record with a time of 1:58.81.
A late inclusion to Team Kenya for this year’s World Indoors, Chepngetich believes that training within the system and with the right facilities is what has made her excel.
“Kenyan students in the US have started getting it right because of the facilities that we have at the institutions,” she said on phone from Fayetteville, Arkansas, in the USA.
“I, personally, struggled when I arrived here, but I’m finally a champion at the collegiate games. My focus now shifts to the world championships.”
