Nairobi — The national trials for the African Games hangs in limbo as athletes protest the selection criteria for the continental championships set to begin this week in Accra, Ghana.

The trials were scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday at Nyayo Stadium but athletes are yet to take to the track and field, complaining that selecting only one person per category is unfair to them.

The athletes are insisting that three best placed finishers be picked in each category of competition to offer as many opportunities as possible to the upcoming ones among them.

"It has to be number one, two and three being picked for the games. We should be considerate of the upcoming athletes as well. Personally, I wouldn't mind giving my slot to a young athlete but let's be fair with the selection criteria," the Commonwealth Games 800m champion Wycliffe Kinyamal said.

Speaking at the same time, Kenya National Sports Council (KNSC) Andrew Mudibo asked the athletes to draft a petition with their demands and present them to AK.

"Afterwards, they (AK) will present it to us and then we will present it to the government to see what can be done," Mudibo said.

Athletics Kenya (AK) had on Thursday last week said it would only be picking one athlete per category to represent Kenya at the 13th edition of the games.

AK vice president Paul Mutwii said this had been occasioned by the fact that athletics had only been allotted 30 slots in Team Kenya's contingent to Accra.

This raised concerns that Kenya will return its lowest ever medal tally from the games although AK treasurer David Miano insisted they would select a team full of medal prospects.

"Not necessarily...because the athletes selected will be the best of the best in their respective categories of competition. They are medal prospects with the best chance of winning gold. Hopefully, other sports disciplines will play their part and perform well as well," Miano said.

Athletics has claimed the lion's share of the 442 medals won by Kenya in the 58-year history of the games.