As Martin Lel, Samuel Wanjiru and Luke Kibet took a final evening jog around the Olympic Village on Saturday evening, the biggest thought that came across their mind was that, finally, Kenya will win its first Olympic marathon gold medal.

For all the success of its runners in big city marathons, Kenya has never struck gold at the Olympics and, going by the country's performance at the Beijing Games so far, this is about to change.

Four times Boston Marathon champion, Catherine Ndereba, was almost there in the women's race here but lost sight of the eventual winner, Romania's Constantina Tomescu, to settle for the silver, her second after also finishing second at the Athens Games four years ago.

Marathon talent

Kenya has an embarrassment of marathon talent so deep that Athletics Kenya could afford to replace Boston Marathon champion Robert "Mwafrika" Cheruiyot in the 11th hour with world champion Luke Kibet after the former failed to recover from an injury in time to run on the Beijing streets.

Any of the three Kenyan entries today is capable of winning the 42-kilometre race.

Lel - with a personal best of 2:05.15 - was the first man to win both the London and New York marathons in the same year last year and has been enjoying top form lately.

Kibet's gold medal at last year's World Athletics Championships in Osaka was only Kenya's second win at the world championship level and the first in 20 years after Douglas Wakiihuri's triumph in the 1987 World Championships in Rome.

Wanjiru is the world half marathon record holder and paced Lel to victory in London this year, clocking his personal best 2:05.24 in only his first year of marathon running.

Humid conditions

Based in next door Japan, where he moved to in 2002 and where he has been on the roster of Toyota Kyushu Team, the humid conditions in Beijing will be favourable to the 21-year-old star from Nyahururu.

Others favoured for a shot at the medals include former Kenyan Mubarak Shami (Richard Yatich) of Qatar who has a season's best 2:08.23. Shami finished second behind Kibet at the World Championships last year in Osaka.

Others are Jaouad Gharib (Morocco), Italian defending champion Stefano Baldini and the Japanese trio of Tsuyoshi Ogata, Toshinari Suwa and Satoshi Osaki.

Kenya is currently on four gold medals and a win today will bring the tally to five, which will make Beijing Kenya's most successful Olympics ever.