With Kenyan women taking all six medals, albeit in their speciality events, the marathon and the 10,000 metres, on the first day of the World Championships in Daegu, their acceleration into the same stratosphere as their men is complete. It is not beyond the realms of possibility for them to add one or more medals in the 800, 1500 and 5000 metres too. And given the men’s chances of winning a few gongs too, what a week it promises to be for the Kenyan team.
But it’s the Kenyan women who have set the scene.
Twenty years ago, I used to muse about British women’s success in championships like the Commonwealth Games that it was largely due to suppression of and lack of opportunities for women in the Third World societies which were and are a major part of the Commonwealth constituency. That may still be the case in many areas of less developed societies, but clearly not in Kenyan athletics.
The women themselves, abetted by men who are not threatened by successful women have proved that when it comes to turning base mettle into gold, anything ‘they’ can do, ‘we’ can do too; and sometimes better.
Admittedly, their Ethiopian rivals, both men and women, are going through a downturn in fortunes, from which they will certainly revive, there is no question about that. But for the time being let us celebrate the inheritors of the pathfinder general, Kipchoge Keino, whose victories in the Olympic Games of Mexico City 1968 and Munich 1972 started the surge whose most recent peak took Edna Kiplagat and Vivian Cheruiyot first through the finish line of the marathon and 10,000 metres respectively; followed by Priscah Jeptoo and Sharon Cherop on the road; and by Sally Kipyego and Linet Masai on the track; oh, and for good measure, Priscah Cherono was fourth in the 25 lapper, pushing Berlin silver medallist Mesalech Melkamu of Ethiopia even further back.
Husbands are not often the most understanding of men, especially when the wife strays onto their territory.
But, as David Monti reports on the IAAF website, when Gilbert Koech started coaching his wife, Edna eight years ago, he quickly realised that she had probably got more of what it takes to be a champion than himself.
“When I see the history of her, she’s a good racer and she’s a good fighter,” Koech said. “When she was in World cross country, I see the race she was running, and she wasn’t getting any kind of training. I had a small group, and she was the only lady and I tell her, ‘if you are patient, you will be at the top of the world.’”
A marathon runner, and winner, in his own right, it didn’t take too much to convince Koech that he should shelve his own career, and direct that of his wife.
When Kiplagat won the LA Marathon last year, agent Brendan O’Reilly told Koech, ‘You have to dial back your own running career’. He thought about it for two days, and he said, ‘Brendan, you’re right.’”
And the result, and its corollary – seven Kenyan women ahead of the whole distance running world – was plain for all to see.
Although he probably didn’t believe it himself, Chairman Mao was fond of saying, ‘Women are half the sky’. In Kenya, they are at least half of the Rift Valley. And there looks to be a lot more to come.
Great to see the Kenyan women racing so successfully, but what exactly is behind the (comparative) collapse of the Ethiopian women this year?
Kip Keino is rightly hailed as the grandfather of Kenyan distance running, but often overlooked is that Kenya’s first Olympic gold was won not by him over 1500 metres but by Neftali Temu over 10,000 metres at Mexico City in 1968. Few remember that Keino was in the 25 lap race, but dropped out near the finish when he fell off the pace. Keino had no form over 10,000m, and only put himself into the event because he desperately wanted to go down in history as Kenya’s first Olympic champion.
As track expert Dick Bank wrote at the time, ‘that is not rumour, but verified fact.’
minor point, Dave, Keino rejoined the race, finished fifth and was disqualified (of course).
Supposedly, he had a gall bladder infection. But that didn’t prevent him finishing second to Gammoudi in the 5000m, and then winning the 1500, by one of the biggest margins in Olympic history.
Not bad, eh?
Yes Pat, all credit to the Kenyan women, but isn’t this just as much testimony to the decline of the Ethiops? Both winning times were modest; the last lap in the 10,000 was 61, whereas I don’t think we ever saw Tirunesh at her best run outside 60.
For a long time, the Ethiopians stayed ahead of the Kenyans because they had a system (East German-inspired, inherited from the ‘socialist’ period under Mengistu), whereas the Kenyans didn’t. Now that system, politicised, corrupt and suspicious of outsiders, is falling apart, whereas the Kenyans, led by their ex- and current stars, have put together their own runner-and-coach-based structure. Their athletes travel and compete freely and welcome visits from foreign athletes and coaches. The same cannot be said of Ethiopia, where even the great Haile is treated with suspicion when he tries to establish closer contacts with foreign athletes and coaches.
Ethiopia’s one long-standing and highly successful national coach, Woldemeskel, is not getting any younger. Many of their stars, including Haile himself, Deratu Tulu, the Bekele brothers and the Dibaba sisters, were in fact ‘discovered’ and initially trained by Santayo Eshetu, a PE teacher operating outside the system, with minimal finances, in a one-horse town called Bokoji.
Perhaps, when Haile finally hangs up his racing shoes, and decides to take things in hand – if the politicians and their appointees let him – we shall see an Ethiopian revival. But don’t hold your breath.
Best,
Tim J
Correction Pat – to Dave C’s post. Kip Keino most certainly did have form over 10, 000m before Mexico. Earlier that summer he ran in the low 28s in a race in Leningrad. That performance was the main reason I opted for the marathon rather than 10k. I reckoned that, at altitude, being light and well-acclimatised, I could handle the more heavily built Clarke and Haase (both of whom, as it turned out, did indeed perform well below par), but would have no chance against fast-finishing, altitude-born Keino.
In training, a few days before the race, I ran a time-trial over the distance round the road circuit in the Olympic Village, in training shoes and track bottoms, in 29′ 26″, within seconds of Temu’s eventual winning time. So, who knows? . . Whatever, just goes to show the dangers of spending too much time reading Athletics Weekly.
Best,
Tim J
great couple of insights from the much-travelled, and regular contributor, Tim J, who was (among many other athletics’ feats) eighth in the Mexico Olympic marathon.
Pat
Seems like athletic pundits nowadays are as sensitive as the FTSE 100 index. Why write off Ethiopian women on the basis of a couple of championship results? (OK I know why – because it makes fleeting copy).
There may be some “system” in operation (and the economic incentives will dictate), where a national fedration/coach is able to encourage runners to give their best efforts in championship races, but in terms of raw talent there is no doubt that Ethiopian women are just as gifted as Kenyans.
There are many money earning and life-changing opportunities out there. Championship performance is only one avenue to success, and the current show in Daegu does not have undisputed pulling power when set against these other opportunities.
So Aselefech Mergia “failed” and did not finish in Daegu, but she did happen to win $250,000 in Dubai back in January. I would guess that was sufficiently life-changing.
Hugh
I asked Vivien about the recent success of Kenyan women at the press conference yesterday and if there were any reasons behind it. She helpfully replied
“today is not yesterday and tomorow is not today’ :-S
so there you are !!
I don’t think it’s fair to put the Kenyan success down to the clapse of ETH, Vivien ran as fast as she needed to yesterday she clearly could have gone sub 60 if pushed and her solo 5k run in stockholm would have been significantly faster with anything resembling competition.
Excellent piece by Tim Johnston on the collapse of the Ethiopian women distance runners – he answered my question and rightly corrected me on my omission re. Kip Keino’s 1968 form at 10,000 metres. In retrospect I can see that I was being rather harsh on Kip at Mexico City where he really did perform magnificently, taking on three distances in spite of his gall bladder infection.
To hopefully redress the balance, let me point out a really obscure piece of Pub Quiz trivia – Kenya’s Kip Keino will for all time be the only man to win Commonwealth Games titles at both one mile (Kingston, 1966) and 1500 metres (Edinburgh, 1970).
Well, seems I was too hasty in writing off the Ethiops, but I still maintain that their ‘system’ is no longer working as it should. Tremendous wastage of talent. Young runners who have problems with injuries or otherwise are simply put on the scrap-heap, on the basis that there will always be others coming through to replace them. Nothing like the same depth as the Kenyans.
1′ 53″ last 800m! What more could Mo have done? Pity Tadesse couldn’t have warmed it up a bit more, as he did in Berlin. 64 sec. laps were never going to trouble Mo’s rivals. Maybe Mo himself should have gone earlier, as Bekele would have done at his best. Difficult to tell how hot it was out there. Nice revenge for Jeilan, though, whom I remember watching run away with the Ethiop National Junior CC title in 2007. Then he went to those murderous Mombasa World Champs (where Bekele dropped out 800m from the finish after miscounting the laps) and could be seen on TV fighting in the finishing straight with officials, who were carrying him off the course after a series of Jim Peters-style collapses. Must have been traumatic for an 18-year-old in his first international event. Great to come back after that.
Ethiop sprinting style is interesting – totally non-text book: leaning right forward and clawing with the arms, almost using them as an extra pair of legs.
Btw, what’s the matter with the producers in Taegu, showing endless shots of female field events, complete with replays and crowd reaction, while the 10k was building up to a climax? Didn’t even show us Bekele being dropped, then stepping off the track. I gather the same happened in Women’s mara. Someone should have a word!
Best,
Tim J
One problem with the Kenyan/Ethiopian domination (eg Kenyan women above)is that it simply gets boring – terrible to say that – it used to apply sometimes to East Germany. This is strictly from the spectator’s point of view. And of course they are absolutely superb athletes. In tennis, Sampras used to be boringly predictable in his wins, as did Heather Mackay, the fabulous Squash Player – so sometimes the greatest sportspeople are their own worst enemies in spectator terms.