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| - Kenya's Olympic 3,000m steeplechase champion, Conseslus Kipruto, hopes to defend his Olympic title at the Tokyo games, but his preparations are clouded by accusations of sexual assault. Double world champion Kipruto, who denies charges of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in his hometown of Kapsabet and was granted bail in November, is among the athletes invited for Kenya's three-day Olympic trials starting at Nairobi's Kasarani stadium on Thursday. A top-two finish will earn the 26-year-old a place in the team and the opportunity to defend the title he won in an Olympic record time in Rio de Janeiro five years ago. It is not the first time a world-beating Kenya steeplechaser has been mired in scandal ahead of a big competition. In 2012, Ezekiel Kemboi narrowly avoided being barred from the London Olympics after being accused in court of stabbing a woman. The National Olympic Committee of Kenya nevertheless cleared Kemboi to run, and he went on to win his third Olympic gold. Kipruto's reputation is at stake, but there are also questions over his form ahead of this week's trials after he failed to finish the June 10 Wanda Diamond League in Florence, Italy, his first steeplechase race of the season. The lack of local and international competitions during the coronavirus pandemic may have a negative impact on athletes' performance at the Kenya trials, according to Olympic and three-time World 3,000m steeplechase silver medallist Patrick Sang. "Opportunities were not available for the athletes to test themselves for the Olympics during this COVID period. But the dynamics of competition are different when the athletes are facing such selections," he said. Sang, who since his retirement has become well known for coaching Kenya's Olympic and world marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge, nevertheless has high hopes for Kenya's runners. "We have a lot of talented athletes ready to represent Kenya," he said. "Where in the world do you see two men's 5,000m semi-finalists in an Olympic trial, or 20 qualifiers in the men's 800 metres?" Kenya head coach Julius Kirwa was equally optimistic about the quality of the athletes entered for the trials, even though they will not include two-time Olympic 800m champion David Rudisha, who has pulled out of the games due to recurring injuries. "The good news is that we have a number of athletes who have sustained a high level of performance for quite some time despite the COVID pandemic," said Kirwa during this month's trials for the postponed 2020 World U-20 athletics championships due to be held in Kenya in August. They include the 2018 Commonwealth 800m champion Wycliffe Kinyamal who, like Rudisha, is a Maasai from the Transmara region of western Kenya. Kinyamal won the second Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha with a season's best time of 1:43.91, finishing ahead of his more experienced countryman Ferguson Rotich (1:44.45), and Britain's Daniel Rowden. Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon has also put in strong recent performances, winning back-to-back Diamond League races in world-leading times in the 800m in Doha, and 1500m in Florence. aik/tmc/cdw
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