Jacob Araptany, last year athletics revelation will line alongside 12 other athletes in heat 2 of the men’s 3000m steeplechase this afternoon.
The 20-year-old, known for his early charge, will need to be more tactful as he tends to lose grip of top spot whenever he starts on a high.
“I can do better,” Araptany, a bronze medalist at the 2010 Canada World Junior Athletics Championships said.
He left many disappointed after he lost out and finished seventh at the Daegu World Athletics Championships last August.
In Porto Novo a few weeks back, he took ninth in similar fashion as country mate Benjamin Kiplagat collected his first senior medal (bronze).
Araptany faces a ponderous task against three other Africans Ethiopian Birhan Getahun, Moroccan Brahim Taleb and Kenyan Brimin Kiprop Kipruto.
Kenyan Brimin Kiprop Kipruto
The latter is the favourite to win this heat. In 2007, he won the gold medal in the steeplechase at the World Championships, in Osaka.
After qualifying to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Kipruto finally won the gold medal at the same event. At the 2009 World Championships, the defending champion finished only seventh.
He took two wins on the 2010 IAAF Diamond League circuit, finishing in first place at the Athletissima and Meeting Areva, but it was Kenyan rival Paul Kipsiele Koech who went on to win the inaugural Diamond League trophy in the steeplechase. He entered the 2010 Commonwealth Games with the fastest mark of the year (8:00.90), but could only manage third place behind Richard Mateelong and Ezekiel Kemboi as part of a Kenyan medal sweep.