Kenya’s swimmers, boxers along with the lone rower and taekwondo fighter celebrated the arrival of some of the country’s most sought after track stars on Monday night, happy that they will, momentarily, deflect attention off their preparations for the start of the Olympic Games programme this weekend.

The advance party of Bernard Ngumba, Suleiman Bilali, Aziz Ali (boxing), Mathew Lidaiywa (rowing) and Milkah Akinyi (taekwondo) arrived here on Saturday and were joined by swimming’s Dunford brothers David and Jason on Monday.

Guarded secret

The arrival of the women’s 3,000m steeplechase and 10,000m teams will no doubt attract greater attention as the world awaits Friday’s official opening ceremony that has remained the closest guarded secret of the Games.

Lucy Kabuu, Grace Momanyi, Peninah Arusei, Linet Masai (10,000m), Ruth Bosibori and Veronica Nyaruai (3,000m steeplechase) shook off the effects of jet lag with a light training session on Tuesday afternoon under coach Peter Mathu in Beijing.

Kabuu, who developed her track career in Japan, is more familiar with the conditions in this part of the world and had a light workout session in the morning as the rest of the girls rested.

“We are scaling down our training and also acclimatising,” Mathu said. “It’s not advisable to continue with the same training programme that we had at high altitude in Nairobi at sea level here in Beijing.”

After an easy morning at the Games Village, Bosibori and Momanyi said they were looking forward to conquering the heat and settling down to business in time for the start of the athletics programme on August 15 when Momanyi will be in action in the 10,000m final.

Two Kenya-born Dutchwomen – Lornah Kiplagat and Hilda Kibet – will team up to make an attempt to destroy their motherland with Ethiopia’s world champion Tirunesh Dibaba and her sister Ejegayehu adding a family angle to the race that is expected to be a thriller.

Strongest field

The fact that the 10,000m has attracted one of the strongest fields ever does not seem to scare the Africa Championships’ 5,000m bronze medallist.

“We have prepared top run as a Kenyan team and we don’t care who is in the opposition – we will stick to our game plan.”

Also joining the Kenyan squad at the Olympic Village was walker David Kimutai, the often forgotten veteran of the Kenyan athletics team with three Olympic Games appearances under his belt.

Kimutai will be hoping to improve on his 39th placing at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

The uncelebrated walker won the Africa title at the 2006 Africa Championships in Mauritius, and was fourth at this year’s continental championships in Addis Ababa.