The Kenya Amateur Athletic Association chairman Isaiah Kiplagat and his team can win athletes' support if they admit past mistakes of the association and apologise.

An Olympic medallist Nixon Kiprotich said among the injustices against athletes which KAAA failed to act upon included failure by the association to lodge a protest when Kenya's Richard Chelimo lost a chance of winning gold in the 10,000 metres at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics after he was deliberately blocked by Moroccans.

The former runner said Khalid Skah of Morocco could have been disqualified if the KAAA officials who were in Barcelona protested to the world athletics body, the IAAF.

Kiprotich said the federation officials, who included the chairman, "failed to lodge a protest."

Other areas where the federation dragged its feet, he said, included when Moses Tanui lost a shoe after being stepped on by Ethiopia's star Haile Gebrselassie in the 10,000 metres finals at the Stuttgart World Championships.

He said the blame for the banning of five-time world cross country champion John Ngugi for four years by IAAF for refusing off-season doping test lied squarely on KAAA "who failed to alert runners on the importance of the tests."

"If Kiplagat can apologise on behalf of the federation for these mistakes, then athletes are ready to work with him as the KAAA chairman," said Kiprotich in Eldoret.

He ruled out Olympic boycott saying runners cannot let down the 30 million Kenyans because of a few individual officials.

Kiprotich said runners were determined to end dictatorship in the management of athletics in the country adding that this was the reason they had decided to field candidates in the on going KAAA elections.

Already former runners have won seats in various districts. Juma Ndiwa won a seat in Mt Elgon, Moses Kiptanui and William Mutwol won top seats in Marakwet, Lucas Sang and Richard Metto also won top seats in Uasin Gishu.

John Ngugi won a seat in Nyandarua while in Koibatek, unconfirmed reports indicated two former athletes Kitilit and William Sang had also secured seats in the district.

Kiprotich warned that Kenyan's future in athletics was bleak unless a programme was founded that would ensure continued production of runners by the country.

He said currently armed forces, Posta, Kenya Power and Railways were no longer recruiting employee on sporting ability like in the past. These were institutions that produced many runners for the country.

He said it was now upon the federation to strengthen the many clubs that had come up in the country and take athletics competitions to grassroots level by letting meets to be held in as many places at the same time as possible.

He said the current format of holding meets in some selected towns denied many runners chance to compete because they could not afford travel and accommodation fairs.