Kenyan siblings aim to make history

World cross junior champion Linet and her sibling Moses Ndiema Masai are aiming to become the first brother and sister to score a unique double at this week's world cross-country championships in Edinburgh.

The Masais are one of two pairs of siblings in the Kenyan side that will defend the overall team title in the Scottish city on March 30.

Though just 19, Linet, the reigning world junior champion, has decided to skip the junior race to run the seniors following the decision by her former compatriot Lornah Kiplagat of the Netherlands not to defend her title in Edinburgh.

"I will be running my own race in Edinburgh," said Linet before the team's departure for the Scottish capital on Wednesday. "I will not be afraid of anybody."

Her brother, who is only two years older than his sister, is making a return to the distance running after spending two years nursing a strange stomach ailment which forced him to miss the last two World championships in Fukuoka and Mombasa.

He knows well the tall order which awaits the Kenyans in the men's 12 km race in Edinburgh as the east Africans try to reclaim the individual title last won by Paul Tergat in 1999.

"We shall be running as a team in Edinburgh. But I expect to run and be the best one in the team," said Ndiema, a former African junior 5 000m and 10 000m champion. "We want to make the Kenyans proud again," said Ndiema.

The Masais, both police officers, hail from the restive Mount Elgon region where the Kenyan security forces have been battling against a ragtag militia fighting over land rights.

The pair are not the only siblings in the current Kenyan team. They will be joined by Mathew Kisorio and Peter Kimeli, both sons of the late Some Muge, a winner of the bronze medal at the 1983 World cross country championships in Gateshead, England.

The two brothers will compete in the junior men's 8km race.

Meanwhile, team coach Peter Kirwa asked Kenyans to pray for the teams as it seeks to reclaim the country glory.

"The team is ready to go. We are asking Kenyans to pray for us and I hope we will do something that they will be proud of. The athletes are looking forward to Edinburgh, they have high spirits and are definitely ready for war on Sunday," Kirwa said.

"This year's team is much stronger than last year and we are confident they will do better. There is a mixture of experienced and fresh faces and in Linet Masai we have one of the inform athletes as she won in Mombasa and has been in good form," he added.

Athletics Kenya chief Isaiah Kiplagat told Kenyan they must defeat Ethiopians who have recently upstaged Kenyan in the long distance races.

"We still what to beat Ethiopians 12k and the senior women category.

"We want to go there and do something this year," he told the runners before they were due to fly out.

Kiplagat urged the athletes to ignore technical skills of urgents and stick to the the coach's advice.

"We know we lost some events in Osaka which we should not have lost (because) of agents, coaching from outside, telling you don't run the way you have been told by Kirwa, forget about them, run they way we have told you."