Cheruiyot won't defend titles

"I will be out for some time," Cheruiyot, 30, said from her home town of Eldoret. She gave no further details.

Cheruiyot, who won both races at the 2011 Daegu world championships, also took silver and bronze in the 5 000 and 10 000 metres respectively at last year's London Olympics.

Twice Olympic steeplechase champion Ezekiel Kemboi will head an elite squad including Commonwealth Games champion Richard Mateelong at the Kenya Police Championships in Nairobi on Friday and Saturday.

Geoffrey Mutai, whose time of 2:03:02 in the 2011 Boston marathon is not recognised as a world record because the course does fulfill the International Association of Athletics Federations' criteria, will take on 2012 London marathon winner Wilson Kipsang and Geoffrey Kipsang in the 10,000 metres.