Kenya world champion Limo quits cross country

NAIROBI, Apr 5: Kenya's 5,000 metres world champion Benjamin Limo has quit cross country running to concentrate on track events, a few days after Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele announced he would do the same.

''I have had enough of cross country and I now want to concentrate on track,'' the 31-year-old Limo told reporters late yesterday upon his return from the world cross country championships in Japan.

Limo won the 5,000m world title in Helsinki in August 2005, and named his newborn son after the Finnish capital in honour of the victory. He took a silver medal for the same distance in the 1999 world championships in Seville, Spain.

In his final cross country race in Fukuoka last week, Limo came fourth in the 4km shorty course race, the same distance he took his only world cross country title in Belfast seven years ago.

''I am getting old and I feel it is better if I left the cross country scene to the young runners,'' he said.

On Sunday, Bekele said he was quitting cross country after completing a historic double by storming to the men's 12km title in Japan.

The 23-year old twice IAAF athlete of the year became the first man to win both the 4km and 12km titles five years in a row following his triumph in last week's races.

REUTERS