Athletics-Kenya drop Komon from world cross country team, Posted by Meosha Eaton

EMBU, Kenya, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Kenya have dropped Leonard Komon from their World Cross Country championships team after he defied orders not to take part in the World's Best 10km road race in Puerto Rico on Sunday. "We have taken this decision to give him leeway to compete in Puerto Rico and for the best interest of the team since he would be burned out," Kenya team leader Joseph Kinyua said.

Komon, who had been set to take part in his sixth successive world championships, became the first man to dip under the 27-minute mark for 10km on the road when he ran 26:44 in Utrecht, Netherlands, last September. Komon's management team said the 23-year-old would comment on his exclusion on Monday.

"Athletics Kenya should always act in the best interest of athletes," said a spokesman. "Komon has done his country proud and he should not be sacrificed for the interests of a few." The athletes are training in Embu at the foot of Mount Kenya some 190 km (118 miles) north east of Nairobi for next month's event in Spain.

Komon's place has been taken by Paul Tanui. Vivian Cheruiyot, the women's world 5,000 metres track champion, and Linet Masai, the women's world 10,000 metres track champion, pulled out of the lucrative Puerto Rico race after being told to concentrate on the cross country worlds. (Reporting by Jack Oyoo; Edited by Brian Homewood