Nairobi — The country is by no means putting any pressure on Wilfred Bungei, the most well known men's 800m entry, to bring back the gold from the World Athletics Championships in Osaka.

Kenyans have always had the trust that any of those in this event could produce the goods in top class competition such as at the world championships or the Olympics.

That is how Paul Ereng', William Tanui (Olympic champions) and Billy Konchellah (twice) and Paul Ruto's world championship triumphs were received with delight and congratulations.

In Osaka, Bungei, Justus Koech or Alfred Kirwa will have an equal chance of winning because the 800m normally becomes such a tactical race in the final lap that hot favourites regularly get frustrated by the tactics of the day.

Pressure on himself

So it will be Bungei who will no doubt be putting pressure on himself because being around for a while, and showing vast much promise - at times being the highest ranked man in the world - failure in Osaka will be a personal jolt to his confidence.

He has achieved everything, including a world indoor title in Moscow last year, but the coveted world outdoor and the Olympic golds have eluded him.

He appears determined not to end up like the hundreds of other seemingly good Kenyan runners who in the end never make a mark in the big international championships.

Bungei made serious sacrifices and focused single-mindedly on Osaka.

He knew making the Kenya team was always going to be tough.

He did well to be in it because another top world class man, William Yiampoy, failed.

Bungei expects to meet a familiar cast of men whom he has beaten in top meets in the past two seasons including Mbulaeni Mulaudzi of South Africa, Gary Reed of Canada, Kenya-born Bahraini Youssef Saad Kamal a.k.a Gabriel Konchellah, Yuri Borzakovsky of Russia, Amin Laalou of Morocco and former Olympic champion Andre Bucher of Switzerland

But the spectre of unheralded names, including Koech and Kirwa and newly crowned ninth All Africa Games champion Abubaker Khamis Kaki of Sudan and another African, Abraham Chepkirwok of Uganda, looms to crush the dreams of Bungei and other luminaries in Osaka.

As a 17-year-old in 1997, Bungei showed spectacular talent and took the silver at the world junior championships. Since then it has been many years of good racing albeit misted up by lack of hitting the jackpot. There was a silver medal in the 2001 World Championships in Seville, failure in 2004 Olympics in Athens and a fourth place at the 2005 Worlds in Helsinki. But few can write off Bungei's chances of achieving his dreams by winning this time in Japan and in next year's Olympic Games in China.

His determination to clinch the biggest prizes makes the statement that when the things, which began when he was a teenager, must end, he will go out in Osaka and Beijing like he came in - with a blaze of glory. Later we shall look at whether it is at all possible to win gold in any of either the men's or women's 5,000m and 10,000m because the pedigree of Ethiopian opposition is just intimidating.

We shall start with the men's 5,000m where the men are the currently hot Isaac Songok, world champion Benjamin Limo, talented Joseph Ebuya and a rather uncertain former 2003 champ Eliud Kipchoge.

Kenya have two pressing concerns about the overall look of the team.

There is growing fear that focus has been distracted by the perennial rogue behaviour by some of its members.

Some ran away to train in Japan under undesignated championship team coaches.

And however good the reasons for these men and women to be in Japan, it must be said they disrespected authority by not asking for permission to leave.

The Osaka contingent does not appear cohesive.

The other issue is whether the coaches and officials have been able to psychologically work up the team to brace themselves for a Herculean task of conquest in Osaka.

Kenya's failure will hardly be surprising if it comes to it and, indeed some bad performances will be inevitable. But there still remain good chances of some remarkable performances.