NAIROBI, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- African champion and overwhelming favorite, Alice Aprot, will not compete at the 2018 Commonwealth Games after sensationally crashing out of the women's 10,000m trial in Nairobi on Saturday.
Aprot, a fourth finisher over the distance at the Rio 2016 Olympics and 2017 IAAF World Championships in London was widely tipped to lead the Kenyan line-up for the Gold Coast Club Games but she dropped out of the race.
Sandrafelis Chebet (32:41.2), the 2,000m steeplechase silver medalist at the 2015 IAAF World U-18 Championships in Cali, Colombia, edged out hard-fighting Stacy Ndiwa (32:41.6) in the final sprint for the 25-lap race honours.
They will be joined in the Gold Coast team for the event by Beatrice Mutai (32:44.7) who led the challengers home in third.
The women's 10,000m showdown was one of the most anticipated races at the Trials with Aprot, who won silver at the 2017 IAAF World Cross in Kampala, Uganda, expected to crush the field.
But having embedded herself in the leading pack in the initial exchanges, Aprot followed Emily Chebet, another rank favourite in withdrawing from the competition to the surprise of many at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani Stadium.
At the bell, only four of the 110 starters to the race had an interest in the podium places and it soon boiled down into a sprint for the line between Chebet and Ndiwa over the final 300m before the former motored to victory.
"My aim is to step up training and bring Kenya a medal. The competition was tough with athletes such as Aprot and Ndiwa in the field but I had a good race," the winner told reporters at the finish.
Chebet who also represented Kenya at the 2016 IAAF World U-20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland will choose which event to compete for her nation having also qualified for the Mar. 17 2018 Africa Cross Country Championships in Chlef, Algeria.
