NAIROBI, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan athletics officials believe the country will improve on its medal haul from the last World Indoor Championships in 2016 and reign supreme during this year's competition in Birmingham, England in March.
Kenya collected only two bronze medals in Eugene, Oregon in 2016 from Margaret Wambui in 800m and Augustine Choge in 3,000m.
However, Kenya's head coach Julius Kirwa is buoyant, the country will have a better championship in Birmingham in March and hope to challenge giants USA, Ethiopia, France and Jamaica for the medals.
"Last time we missed the gold medals because the athletes we entered were not so strong. But looking at this year's competition, we have no other major event after this apart from the Commonwealth Games," he said. "Top athletes will not decline to compete in Birmingham and Kenya will be a strong candidate to win."
Already world athletics governing body IAAF has announced the wild card selection after completion of its 2017 World Indoor Tour. 11 athletes - five men and six women in 2017 - have booked their place at the IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham 2018.
In addition to a winner-takes-all 20,000 U.S. dollars bonus, the 11 individual discipline winners automatically qualify for the World Indoor Championships through wild card selection, though individual countries reserve the right to enter two athletes per event.
This means, for instance, that in Birmingham there will possibly be three Kenyan athletes in each of the men's 1500m and women's 3000m, three South Africans in the men's long jump, three Jamaicans in the women's 60m and three US athletes in the women's 60m hurdles.
Previously only two athletes per nation per discipline have been allowed to enter the IAAF World Indoor Championships, but there is now a chance that, for the first time in history, one nation could sweep the medals in an individual event.
Others who have secured wild cards are Pavel Maslak (Czech Republic), Bethwel Birgen (Kenya), Orlando Ortega (Spain), Donald Thomas (Bahrain), Godfrey Mokoena (South Africa), Gayon Evans (Jamaica), Joanna Jozwik (Poland), Hellen Obiri (Kenya), Nicole Buchler (Switzerland), Patricia Mamona (Portugal), Anita Marton (Hungary).
The non-scoring disciplines in this year's World Indoor Tour will become the 11 scoring disciplines for next year's World Indoor Tour, creating a total of 22 wild card entries for the IAAF World Indoor Championships.
