Erick Kimaiyo: The 'commando' behind Brigid Kosgei's success 

When Brigid Kosgei shattered the women’s world marathon record on October 13, 2019, at the Chicago Marathon, wide-eyed pundits were certainly left dumbstruck.

The previous record of two hours, 15 minutes and 25 seconds, held by Briton Paula Radcliffe, had stood for 16 years and appeared insurmountable.

But Kosgei made it look pretty easy.

She crossed the finish line in 2:14:04, went on to catch her breath, hands akimbo, sign of the cross… no wild celebrations to boot!

One would have expected her to collapse, spread-eagled on the ground and helped onto a stretcher to the nearest hospital after that energy-sappy performance.

However, one man who all along knew the record would fall, with relative ease, was his coach Erick Kimaiyo.

Some 3,000 metres above sea level at the Kapsait Nike Athletics Training Camp, Kimaiyo, an ex-soldier, had worked on the race build-up with military precision.

Himself a two-time winner of the Honolulu Marathon (once with the third fastest time of 2:12:17 behind compatriot Ibrahim Hussein’s 2:11:42 and 2:12:08), Kimaiyo knew what it would take for Kosgei to shatter the record, effortlessly.

“Erick was a great Honolulu Marathon Champion in 1996 and 1997. He made his mark in Honolulu first, and followed in the footsteps of the the legend, Ibrahim Hussein,” Jim Barahal, President and CEO of the Honolulu Marathon told me last weekend.

He recalled Kimaiyo nurturing late bloomer Kosgei’s talent, first sending her to Porto for her first marathon in 2015 where she clocked 2:47:59, a time she improved by a massive 33 minutes and 55 seconds to 2:14:04 in the Chicago world record run.

The ever-improving Kosgei won back-to-back titles in Hawaii, clinching the 2016 and 2017 Honolulu Marathon titles in 2:31:10 and 2:22:15, respectively.

“We were so blessed to have Brigid establish herself in Honolulu before she went on to conquer the marathon world,” Barahal added.

“Her victory in 2016 was just a glimpse of what was to come. There is no confidence in marathoning like winning a race, and Brigid returned in 2017 with a record shattering performance that would soon echo around the world.

“Without Erick Kimaiyo at Honolulu it is doubtful we would been blessed with Brigid Kosgei.”

Nicknamed “Commando” for his indefatigable nature and ability to multi-task with ease, it was Kimaiyo, 51, that unearthed the talent of Kosgei, a mother of twins and currently the world’s most sought-after female marathon runner.

Besides coaching Kosgei, Kimaiyo also handles 5,000 metres prodigy Edward Zakayo among a galaxy of other young athletes, including Kenya-born Turkish runner Yasemin Can (formely Vivian Jemutai).

“My dream is to have Brigid and Zakayo in the Tokyo Olympics team. Brigid is already qualified and I’m working on making Zakayo go through the Olympic trials,” he told me at the Kapsait camp during our four-day stay at the facility last week.

“If I add Yasemin, then I will have three athletes at the Olympics. I’m also handing athletes from Zimbabwe (Munyaradzi Jari) and South Africa (Annie Bothma) who are both chasing qualifying standards for the Olympics.

“My happiness will be to see them all at the Olympics.”

Despite having chiseled Kosgei to world record shape, Kimaiyo sees the Olympic marathon race as a different ball game.

“I always tell Brigid that running an Olympic marathon race is not the same as running the Chicago or London marathon… She must prepare extra to win the Olympic marathon gold.

“Some people have trained for 10 years, others for four years, only focusing on winning that Olympic gold. It’s not an easy game.”

Besides running the athletics camp, Kimaiyo also founded the Kapsait Athletics Mixed Secondary School in 2014.

Here, talented athletes juggle between sport and academics with the school sharing the same compound as the athletics camp.

But there’s a looming threat the school could be closed as Kimaiyo can hardly make ends meet, pay teachers’ salaries and secure food for the boarding students.

“Since the Covid-19 pandemic struck, the athletes have been contributing to purchase food for the camp and for the students.

“And you can see that despite our struggles, Brigid went ahead and won the London Marathon last October.”

The spartan life that Kosgei, a famous world record holder and wealthy individual by any standards, and the rest of Kimaiyo’s athletes live in camp hardens them, he says.

“In this life we need to live simple… Life is easy and at the same time difficult. If you live an easy, stress-free life, you will live for a long time,” is his mantra.

“What I’d urge veteran athletes and upstarts at the same time is without discipline, you will go nowhere; without learning from your seniors, you will go nowhere – there’s a saying that goes: usipofunzwa na mamako, utafunzwa na ulimwengu. Na ulimwengu utakufunza machungu (If you aren’t taught by your mother the world will teach you. And the world will teach you the hard way).”

Legendary Italian coach and manager Gabriele Rosa, who purchased the Kapsait land and helped construct the camp in partnership with Kimaiyo, describes “Commando” as “one of the world’s best coaches.”

“I have been working with Erick for over 30 years now. We trust each other and he keeps improving the endurance and speed of the athletes,” Rosa, 78, himself once described by Running Times magazine as the world’s greatest marathon coach, told me on phone from Italy yesterday.

Tomorrow: How Italian legend Gabriele Rosa’s protégé Erick Kimaiyo discovered Brigid Kosgei and why Kimaiyo convinced Rosa to build a high altitude training camp at Kapsait (3,000 metres above sea level).