World 5,000m and 10,000 champion Vivian Cheruiyot has withdrawn from Saturday's Aviva Grand Prix with 'flu.
Kenyan comes down with flu ahead of high-profile meeting
World 5,000m and 10,000 champion Vivian Cheruiyot has withdrawn from Saturday's Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham with 'flu.
The Kenyan had been due to run the 3,000m at the National Indoor Arena but will not now join the list of stars taking part in the meeting.
"Just before I began my journey to the UK on Wednesday, I developed flu and do not feel well enough to travel," said the 28-year-old.
"I need to take a few days off to recover so I can resume training as soon as possible in this important year."
Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah and Hannah England - all British medal hopefuls for this summer's London Olympics - plus sprint stars Asafa Powell and Kim Collins, will be taking part.
England, 24, who is from Oxford but trains in Birmingham, will be able to judge the benefit of a tough training stint in Kenya when she face's Ethiopia's Genzebe Dibaba and fellow Briton Claire Gibson in the 1,500m.
"I'm so excited to race in front of a home crowd this weekend," she said. "I do a lot of my training right in the city centre here and I run past the NIA every other day."
Birmingham will be the base for the USA and Jamaica athletics squads ahead of the Olympics, and England officially welcomed American sprint duo Danielle Carruthers and Bianca Knight, and Jamaica's Michael Frater to the city.
Frater, a 4x100m relay Olympic and world gold medallist, will be in the 60m sprint on Saturday against Powell, Collins, and fellow Jamaican Nesta Carter.
"I'm really looking forward to running against the best, that's what I've done my whole career," he said. "I'm using this as a base to test myself ahead of the outdoor season."
