Kenyan runners seek to put crisis behind them

By Andrew Cawthorne

ELDORET, Kenya (Reuters) - The post-election violence is over but Kenya's elite runners have not stopped looking over their shoulders.

Traumatized by unrest that was especially ferocious in the nation's running heartland around the Rift Valley town of Eldoret , the athletes -- including high-profile Olympic aspirants -- lost weeks of work and still fear to run alone.

The usual influx of foreign runners who join the Kenyans for high altitude training also virtually dried up.

"There is still fear in the air. The athletes stay close to town, they are nervous of training on their own," said 23-year-old marathon runner Mike Kiprop, standing during a break near a burned-out block where some runners had been staying.

Angry at President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election in December, gangs of pro-opposition Kalenjins in the Rift Valley set up roadblocks and attacked members of his Kikuyu community, burning homes and killing with stones and machetes.

Revenge killings ensued in other parts of Kenya during a two-month crisis in which at least 1,000 people were killed.

Among the fatalities were 1988 Olympics 4x400 relay finalist Lucas Sang, killed during a mob fracas in Eldoret, and marathon runner Wesley Ngetich, shot by a poisoned arrow near the Maasai Mara game reserve. Other runners were injured.

Adding to the impact of the crisis on Kenyan athletics, some analysts have accused runners from the Kalenjin community -- which has provided most of the nation's champions -- of using their wealth to finance the mobs.