Dr Gabriele Rosa: Final mile for father of Kenyan marathon running

Dr Gabriele Rosa’s schedule was well thought-out. Meticulously planned. 

“On Friday, I will drive to the athletes’ camp in Londiani and then to Nairobi where I will have dinner at The Carnivore... after that, I’ll travel back to Italy,” he told me, with deep reflection, just over a week ago.

Surrounded by the infectious ambience of the new Eka Hotel in Eldoret’s upmarket Rupa Mall, I sat with Dr Rosa for an interview he’d been looking forward to granting the Sunday Nation for a few years now.

Having specialised in cardiology and sports medicine, “Doctor Rosa” -- as he’s fondly known by his stellar cast of proteges and legion of fans -- has coached the greatest marathon runners in the world for more than 30 years and is credited with having effectively launched modern marathon running training in Kenya.

Dr Rosa, 81, lectured in training methodology in the specialty of Sports Medicine at the Universities of Milan and Brescia, publishing numerous articles in prestigious scientific journals in the process.

Having interacted with elite Kenyan runners for the first time in 1988, Dr Rosa made the “Kenyan breakthrough” in 1991 when he launched the “Discovery Kenya” project with the aim of selecting promising athletes and offering them the best conditions to help them succeed internationally, but without uprooting them from their native country. 

‘Running for life’

This was a series of cross country and half marathon competitions that led to the first athletics training camps in the country.

The athletes he discovered would give rise to a generation of marathon runners who distinguished themselves, and continue to do so, by winning the world’s most important international marathons, including New York, Boston, Berlin, London, Chicago.

In his book Correre la vita – Sulla storia della maratona contemporanea (Running for life — the history of contemporary marathon running), Dr Rosa says his coaching and athlete scouting career was motivated by his own running.

“I was a runner not only to scrutinise my body, but to discover its reactions to suffering,” the Italian legend says in the book published in 2014.

“I have trained athletes for the thrill of seeing them improve and grow up to become champions.

“I founded and organised a specialised medical centre to offer assistance to those who decide to challenge their weaknesses.

“I have found in marathon running the discipline that best measures the physical qualities of men and women, and at the same time enhances their moral strength.”

Dr Rosa cherishes his African journey.

“In the long and fascinating journey from the shores of Lake Iseo to those of Lake Turkana, from the gentle hills of my Franciacorta to the wild charm of the Kenyan Rift Valley, I met a magnificent variety of women and men, rich in talents and hopes, ready for hard sacrifices in order to obtain, with athletic glory, an equally fundamental social promotion,” he reflects.

The cast of athletes that have gone through the silver-haired Italian’s gifted hands is a breathtaking Hall of Fame. Moses Tanui, Paul Tergat, Samuel Wanjiru, Martin Lel, Margaret Okayo, Robert “Mwafrika” Cheruiyot, Brigid Kosgei...

In all, he had orchestrated thousands of world distance running records and engineered countless Commonwealth, World and Olympic medals.

“But at 81 years now, I’m not young any more... this should be my last visit to Kenya... I’m happy with what I’ve done in Kenya for the last 33 years… It’s time to go a bit slow now,” Dr Rosa finally hits the reason he really wanted us to chat and reminisce.

This could well be the last of his many trips to Kenya. And as though to confirm that he was on his farewell lap of honour, Dr Rosa visited all 15 athletics training camps he had helped set up in the country, including opening a new one on the scenic, rolling hills of Kiptabuk, Elgeyo Marakwet County.

Of these camps, five are high-profile, led by the one in Kaptagat, Elgeyo Marakwet County, named after the late Olympic Champion Samuel Wanjiru.

The octogenarian also attended several receptions organised in his honour by his star athletes including 1,500 metres legend Nancy Jebet Lagat, who, together with 800m trailblazer Pamela Jelimo, struck Kenya’s first ever Olympic gold medals by women at the 2008 Games in Beijing.

From obscurity, Dr Rosa had nurtured the careers of legends like Tergat and Tanui, nursing them through potentially career-threatening injuries to global stardom.

Tergat, currently President of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya and a member of the International Olympic Committee, recalls how Dr Rosa changed his life, placing him on the path to greatness when all seemed lost.

This was in 1992 when Tergat, then a fresh-faced military recruit, upset the giants and made it to Kenya’s team to the 1992 World Cross Country Championships in Boston, USA.

Having never travelled outside Kenya before, Tergat got his first passport for his international debut.

But the harsh Boston weather, with temperatures dipping to minus 12 degrees Celcius, saw Tergat succumb to the elements, failing to make it to the starting line after picking up a freak injury. “No one had prepared us on what to expect in Boston and I was not psychologically prepared,” Tergat, 53, recalls.

“Out of the blue, suddenly so many things were happening in my life… I had just joined the military and all of a sudden, I upset many veterans and got the opportunity to travel for the first time…

“That shock alone, and many other factors, made me sick and I also picked up an injury and couldn’t make it to the start line for my first major assignment!”

The experienced “King” John Ngugi won the senior men’s race at the Boston World Cross Country Championships, his record fifth title.

Tergat would later match that record.

Meanwhile, after his disappointment in Boston, Tergat’s injury persisted and his rivals branded him a “one-hit wonder” who had fluked his way to the national team. He faded away and didn’t make it to the trials for the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.

“Out of the blues, Dr Rosa, months later, purchased a ticket for me to travel to Italy for treatment,” Tergat recalls.

“That was the start of my recovery and solid relationship with Dr Rosa that blossomed until today and which made me who I am as a professional athlete.

“At the time, I didn’t know about physiotherapy, MRI scans... But he treated my injury until I bounced back.

“Dr Rosa was, and will always be a father figure to me. For someone to believe in me, and invest in me for decades to follow when nobody else saw my potential, is special.”

Lucrative contracts

Through Dr Rosa, Tergat and Tanui -- the latter the first man to run a sub-one hour half marathon -- were to later sign lucrative contracts with K-Way, Fila and later Nike running teams. 

But before engaging Tergat, Tanui and their peers, Dr Rosa had worked with Barnaba Korir, a fresh graduate from USA’s Iowa State University.

Korir had been introduced to Dr Rosa’s training camp in Brescia, Italy, in 1988 by another Italian legend Gianni Demadonna, currently one of the world’s leading athletics managers.

Some of the early Kenyans in the Brescia camp also included Eliud Barngetuny, Jonah Birir, Japhter Keter and Samson Kitur, many of them alumni of US universities.

“Dr Rosa pioneered training camps in Kenya and all over the world,” Korir, currently Athletics Kenya’s Nairobi branch chairman and head of the federation’s national youth development committee, pays his tribute. “He has done an amazing job and transformed how the marathon is run – no one can take it from him.”

Dr Rosa is satisfied with his contribution to Kenyan marathon running, a point he kept stressing during our interview.

“I first came to Kenya in 1990 and decided to develop the marathon. Thirty-three years ago, only a few athletes could go out for competition and very few liked the marathon,” he reflects, recalling how he introduced the culture of athletics training camps which are now in their hundreds in Kenya.

“But now the marathon has become very important and many Kenyans compete internationally.

“In the beginning, Kenyan athletes were training like the Europeans and needed endurance, speed and quality training. I’m very happy that Kenya has given me the opportunity to discover great runners.”

Dr Rosa is also credited with developing Kenya’s trailblazing women marathon runners. 

“The big problem was the women athletes tended to work at home and get married, paying little attention to training.

“But I groomed athletes like Margaret Okayo and started to develop women marathon runners.”

Okayo then won, inter alia, the New York, Boston and London marathons, a dominant force in road running between 1999 and 2006.

Dr Rosa also manages Brigid Kosgei, the women’s marathon world record holder (two hours, 14 minutes and four seconds).

He believes that both Brigid and men’s marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge (2:01:09) can improve their records.

“Over 40 years ago, the men’s marathon standard was around 2:08. Now it is 2:01, and Eliud has run a sub-two hour race in special conditions. Very soon we shall see a sub-two hour time in a normal race.

“For the women, I predict there will soon be a 2:12. Brigid and (former world champion) Ruth Chepgn’etich (personal best 2:14:18) are capable of running 2:12,” he predicts.

Although he now wants to fade out of the Kenyan scene, Dr Rosa wishes to leave a legacy in another discipline – cycling.

During his recent Kenyan tour, the Italian veteran laid ground for the start of a “Discovery Kenya Cycling Championship” that his Rosa Associati management stable hopes to launch soon.

‘Top cycling nation in Africa’ 

“Just as in the marathon, Kenya can also be strong in cycling,” he assures. “What is needed mainly is sponsors and facilities and Kenya will be the top cycling nation in Africa.”

Rosa Associati plan to build a professional cycling camp in Kapsait, close to their athletics camp managed by one of Dr Rosa’s proteges, Eric Kimaiyo.

Brigid Kosgei trains at the Kapsait camp under Kimaiyo, himself an accomplished marathoner who developed under Dr Rosa to win several races in his prime, including winning the Honolulu Marathon twice, in 1996 and 1997, finishing second in Berlin in 1997.

Already, over 20 young riders are being groomed for Dr Rosa’s Kapsait cycling programme.
Perhaps the only frustration in Dr Rosa’s spell with Kenyan marathon running is the increasing number of athletes caught violating anti-doping rules, with some high-profile named from his Rosa Associati stable.

“This (doping) is a terrible thing that we must keep fighting,” he says, sinking into his seat with regret. “As journalists, you must help us in this fight.”

In 2016, Federico Rosa, Dr Rosa’s son and one of the directors at Rosa Associati, was charged in Nairobi with allegedly conspiring with others to administer a prohibited performance-enhancing substance to former Boston marathon champion Rita Jeptoo, claims he has since denied. 

Jeptoo had tested positive for banned blood booster EPO (Erythropoietin).

But as he signs off from Kenya, Dr Rosa assures that his commitment to the country’s sport will remain unwavering.

When he first came to Kenya in 1990, Kenya had only two world class marathon runners, New York and Boston hall of famer Ibrahim Kipkemboi Hussien and former world champion Douglas Wakiihuri.

But in the current World Athletics’ global rankings, largely thanks to the transformation in training that “the father of Kenyan marathon running” Dr Rosa introduced, Kenya boasts 44 of the top 100 male marathon runners and 28 of the world’s top 100 female marathon runners.

[email protected]