Mutai, Kabuu squeeze into Kenya's Olympic marathon squad

Nairobi -  Geoffrey Mutai and Lucy Kabuu dusted themselves from missing out on their country's marathon team for London Olympics by winning the men's 10,000m and women's  5,000m crowns at the Kenya Police Championships here.

Mutai, the New York Marathon titleholder, and Kabuu who finished fifth in London, won their races in contrasting fashion here Thursday, Xinhua reported.

In the men's 25-lap final, Mutai was chased hard by Matthew Kisorio before prevailing by the thickness of a vest with the clocks returning 28:23.0 against 28:23.1 after the furious last 400m.

Behind him, Wilson Kipsang, who won the London Marathon in 2:04: 44 last month to secure an Olympics ticket returned 28:41.3 for fourth behind Kisorio's younger brother, Nicholas Togom  (28:27.1) was further ahead in the bronze position.

Kabuu, who was overlooked for London despite running the third fastest mark raced by a Kenyan in all time of 2:19:34 in Dubai, deployed the afterburners 300m to the finish to leave her  challengers chocking in her slipstream in the women 5000m final.

After motoring around Kasarani track in conservative pace in the open three laps, Kabuu cranked up the speed and enjoyed an unchallenged view in front before her late flourish put the

icing on the cake with the clock returning 15:48.8.

The fifth finisher at the London Marathon last month succeeded double world champion, Vivian Cheruiyot, who chose not to defend her police 5000m title to race in the 1,500m event as part

of building up on her speed work.