Kiplagat leads Kenya women's marathon team to Beijing, eyeing gold

Kenya women's marathon team is feeling the pressure to deliver, after their male colleagues crashed out at the Beijing World Championships on the opening day.

The marathon women team, which comprises two-time world champion Edna Kiplagat, Visiline Jepkesho and Helah Kirop, left for Beijing on Monday to compete on Aug. 30.

"I feel the pressure because our men let us down. I don't know what their problem was, but it surely piles more pressure on us to deliver the medals on Sunday," said Kiplagat, who seeks to become the first woman to win three back to back titles at the World marathon Championships.

"But this is something that every athlete has to live with. It has never been easy even in the big city marathons and I expect Beijing to be even tougher. But I hope to weather the storm and rivals antics to emerge the winner again," she added.

The trio will be the last batch from Kenya going for the games as the country is still searching for its first gold medal, which is likely to come from the women's 10,000m.

Kenya men's 10,000m team failed to sweep the medals despite dominating in the second to fourth position, with Britain's Mo Farah claiming gold. Geoffrey Kipsang was second while Paul Tanui took the bronze medals ahead of Bidan Karoki.

Kenya has been dominant in marathon in both men's and women's races in all big cities, and Beijing will be another test that they can fight it out in a race that has no pace setters.

Helah Kirop, silver medallist at the Tokyo Marathon, said she is ready for the assignment in Beijing and hopes she will be able to claim the gold medal.

"We have trained well and know there will be no pace-makers. We are ready and we will battle it until the final kilometer," she said. Endi