BURN-UP IN BERLIN
At an age when most successful athletes might prefer to slump in front of the television, rather than thrash out another 20k (at altitude); or at best, hold the stopwatch while someone else goes through their paces, Haile Gebrselassie lines up on Sunday, in an attempt to win the real,-Berlin Marathon for the fourth year in succession.
As he put it at Friday’s press conference, “This looks like my own marathon”. When someone mentioned the crowds that Usain Bolt attracted to the Olympiastadion here for last month’s world championships, he took a sly dig at the Jamaican superstar. “He brought 60,000 people to the stadium in Berlin, I’ll bring a million to the streets”.
But it was all done with his inimitable good nature. And given that the 36 year old Ethiopian has set a world record in each of the last two years, if he makes it a hat trick of records to go with the four aces of victory, he’ll get the keys to the city as well as a piece of the old Wall. His extraordinary longevity was underlined when he reminded us that he first raced in Berlin 18 years ago, just two years after the fall of the Wall.
There are good reasons to expect another superlative performance on Sunday. First, there have been six world records set on the superfast Berlin course in the last decade. Second, and more importantly, never one to shirk a new challenge, Haile lines up against Duncan Kibet, one of only two men to get within half a minute of the new world mark of 2.03.59 that Geb set in the German capital a year ago.
Kibet, 31, won the Rotterdam Marathon in April this year in 2.04.27, just one second slower than the time that Geb himself ran in Berlin two years ago. So yet again, Haile will have to prove himself against one of his East African neighbours, if he is to stay at the top of the marathon tree.
And he is made constantly aware of the East African rivalry. Informed last Monday that seven Kenyans had run under the once formidable one-hour barrier for the half-marathon, in Rotterdam, all he could say was,”My God, the Kenyans have a big running factory”. Suggest that he and his Ethiopian colleagues don’t do too badly in the distance running domain, and he replies, “It’s nothing like as many as in Kenya”.
Sure enough. First it was Paul Tergat on the track, and later with the Kenyan’s own world record 2.04.55 on the same Berlin course in 2003, that propelled Gebrselassie to greater heights. And last year, it was arguably the close attentions of the then little known James Kwambai in the latter stages of the race, which helped Haile to the first sub-2.04. Having dropped Abel Kirui (recent winner of the world title, in Berlin) at 35 kilometres, Geb thought he was out on his own. Until Kwambai appeared on his shoulder, and provoked a double take from the Little Emperor that had the TV watching public roaring with delight. Kwambai lasted another couple of kilometres, just enough to ensure that sub-2.04 for Haile.
After that breakthrough, Kwambai, who is a training partner of Kibet went on to clock the same time as his pal, for second place in Rotterdam. And Kwambai was third in that Rotterdam ‘half’ in 59.09 last weekend. Kibet said on Thursday that he thinks that he is currently at least at the same fitness level currently as Kwambai. And since Geb said on Friday that his training has gone perfectly, it looks like we are in for a burn-up in Berlin on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, the record may not go to either man, since Old Mister Sun is predicted to clock in with temperatures rising to 25 or 26C (79F).
Haile is undeterred. “Warm weather is hard for long distance runners, last year was perfect (12-16C). But I don’t want to be slower than 61.30 at halfway (compared to 62.04 last year), and would like to run 30k faster than last year”. His 1.28.25 last year was close to the world record for 30k, and just in case, (and another measure of his confidence) there will be official timekeepers there this year. One advantage is that the second half of the course has a lot of shade.
Apart from naming his time schedule, he was as equivocal as Kibet the previous day about his principal opponent. “This is a marathon, you run against the distance, not the competitors, the distance is the most important. And I can’t just think about Duncan Kibet, there are others too”. If there is to be another challenger it is likely to be yet another Kenyan, Isaac Macharia, who finished second to Geb in Dubai 2008, in 2.07.16.
Second to Irina Mikitenko’s sub-2.20 last year, which secured the Kazakh-born German the Marathon Majors’ half million dollars jackpot, Askale Magarsa of Ethiopia should have the women’s race to herself this year.
The event itself goes from strength to strength, the 40,000+ entries were snapped up earlier than ever this year. This is the 36th annual race, and the 20th anniversary of the first time the race went through the Brandenburg Gate and into the old East Berlin. Nowadays, the finish line is just beyond the landmark. As Gebrselassie said, “When you see the Brandenburg Gate, you know it’s the end of the race”.
THE ACCIDENTAL RUNNER
When Duncan Kibet broke his leg in a car accident at the age of 16, the prospects of his walking properly, let alone becoming a world class runner were pretty remote. Fifteen years later, the legacy of the break is still visible above his left ankle. But the combination of living in Eldoret aka Running Town, Kenya, of his elder brother Luke Kipchumba starting to run well at the start of the century, and hanging out with Kenyan stars, like Moses Tanui and Moses Kiptanui, Kibet, then aged 25 thought he’d give it a try.
So successful was that foray, and despite his own misgivings about moving up to the ultimate distance, Kibet goes into Sunday’s real,-Berlin Marathon as the second fastest man in history. But he faces a metaphorical car crash this time, since alongside him he’ll have the man who has won the last three Berlin races, the last two of them in world record time, hence the number one fastest man in the world, Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia.
“I never even thought about being a runner,” said Kibet on arrival in Berlin on Thursday, “all we did at school was run on sports day, that was it. And when I broke my leg, it never crossed my mind. I was scared to run. But my brother encouraged me, and gradually, I saw I could do it”.
The Kenyan diaspora had already begun, and again, on his brother’s recommendation, he moved to the Paris suburbs and ran in France for close to two years. But even running what for anyone else would be an excellent time in winning the Lille half-marathon in 2003, 60min 59sec for a Kenyan was, literally, nothing to write home about.
But when his younger brother, Shadrack Biwott got a US college scholarship, and helped arrange some races in the US, including another half-marathon victory, in 60.22 in San Jose 2006, agent Federico Rosa, who has a stable of leading Kenyans went to sign him up when he returned to Kenya.
Although Kibet had paced a couple of marathons in France in 2004, and jogged through to the finish in 2.20, Rosa reports that his hardest job was persuading Kibet to take to the marathon seriously. “That’s true,” says Kibet, “I was really scared it was going to break my leg again. And I was scared of the distance”. But Rosa’s counsel prevailed, and although both agreed he wasn’t on optimum form when he went to Vienna 2008, he finished second to compatriot Abel Kirui (who won the recent IAAF World Championship race in Berlin), in 2.08.33.
He followed that up with a victory in Milan in October last year, in 2.07.53, and then really shook up the world rankings, with another victory, over training partner, James Kwambai, in the Rotterdam Marathon in April this year, both men clocking 2.04.27. That is one second slower than Geb’s Berlin world record of two years ago, and less than a half minute outide the Emperor’s world record 2.03.59 from Berlin last year.
Berlin race director, Mark Milde admitted to doing a little arm-twisting to get the world’s two fastest men to line up against each other. “We wanted some drama this time, not just another world record attempt,”said Milde. Of course, it’s quite posiblre he may get both. And Kibet needs no prompting to praise the world number one. “I feel honoured that he let me into the race. I really admire Haile, for all he’s done for athletics over the years, and for everything he’s done for Ethiopia”.
His confident address, in excellent English to yesterday’s press conference in one of Berlin’s smartest hotels underlines a common assessment of Kibet, that, ‘He is not a typical Kenyan’. That is as much to do with the shyness of many of his compatriots, who come from country communities. But the rasta beard and the bling (jewellery), and the Manchester United shirt he occasionally sports as a soccer fanatic mark him out as a bit different.
On Sunday he has an opportunity to make a real difference. Geb already had a shock in the latter stages of last year’s race, when Kibet’s training partner Kwambai pulled alongside the Ethiopian at 35k. “I thought he was a pacemaker,” said Geb afterwards, admitting it was just the impetus he needed to break away again, and take the world record under 2.04.
Kibet already has a share of a world record, but it’s the sort that usually only exercises statisticians and the editors of the Guinness Book of Records. With his brother Luke’s 2.10.57 from Seoul 2003, and his own 2.04.27 from Rotterdam 2009, they hold the fastest siblings’ time in the world, 4.15.24, just five seconds ahead of the Kimaiyo brothers, Eric and Boaz.
As for a record to himself, he has a pointer. Last weekend, Kwambai ran 59.09 for third place in the Rotterdam half-marathon, a result which should inspire Kibet, who feels he is on at least equally good form, and sow a seed of doubt in Geb’s mind. Kibet may be confident, but not overly so.
“When I went to Vienna, I wanted to run 2.10, and I did 2.08.33. When I went to Rotterdam this year, I thought I was capable of high 2.05, low 2.06, and I did 2.04.27. I want to do better than that, I want to run a personal best”.
