In Bathurst, Australia

The triumphant Team Kenya at the just concluded 44th World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia — described by some as the most brutal footrace — is expected to jet back home Tuesday at midnight after a 20-hour journey.

The team which bagged six gold medals; two silver and two bronze — the largest haul by any single nation at the competition — is a shining star and tonic of happiness at a time when there is little to cheer about.

In the formidable Kenyan team a policewoman who ran her opponent to the ground, almost sending her to hospital, and a high school boy with a purpose in life will be among the athletes who will be parading their medals when the plane carrying the heroes touches down  on home soil.

Beatrice Chebet piled pressure on Ethiopian world 10,000 metres champion Letesenbet Gidey with a ferocious pace until the dying minutes of the women’s 10 kilometres race when fatigue appeared to overwhelm. the Ethiopian.

The Kenyan Commonwealth 5,000m champion smelled blood, put her best foot; zooming past the collapsing Ethiopian to finish the job.

This scenario was similar to the one that happened during the 2007 Mombasa World Cross Country Championship when the then unbeatable Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele underrated everything, including the weather, to suffer his first defeat in close to a decade.

But in the men’s 10km race, two-time world champion Geoffrey Kamworor finished fourth as Ugandans Jacob Kiplimo and Joshua Cheptegei took a 1-2 finish in the brutal race with the weather changing to a thunderstorm and the temperatures dropping from 30 degrees plus to 20 in a matter of minutes.

The world should get used to seeing the all-conquering Kenyan athletes for a long time to come.

American author Toby Tanser in his book: Train Hard, Win Easy: The Kenyans Way, he reveals the secrets of Kenyan runners.

He talks about the hard training, especially for cross country races, at the St Mark’s Kigari Teachers Training College national training camp. The three-week training has been held for the past last 30 years.

Tanser has lived in Kenya and followed Kenyan athletes’ training for over 20 years.

He was able to base his conclusion on the solitary and unique lifestyle of five-time world cross country champion John Ngugi, also known as "King John the First" from his second (1997) victory of his five world titles.

Ngugi flopped in the national championships and finished 77th, but he was included in the team as the defending champion.

Ngugi reportedly fooled everybody, secretly training alone at night in Embu, and later joining his colleagues in the scheduled official day time training. But such stunts are not verifiable.

Ahead of this edition of the world cross championships in Australia, national team coach Julius Kirwa and his team settled on different training schedules which included the “furthest, fastest one hour run”. 

The athletes were free to extend the training depending on one's form.
The team was determined to outdo itself, setting camp on January 10 and leaving for Bathurst on February 12 — the longest residential training camp ever.

Coach Kirwa enlisted the services of former cross country aces Benjamin Limo and Shem Kororia.

John Gachara spent several days in Mt Kenya Forest creating running trails for the athletes. It did not help that lower Embu has become dusty because of the current dry spell.

School teachers Robert Ngisirei and Jepchumba Bundotich easily handled recent school leavers on the team. Peter Muteti joined hands with Team Manager Patrick Arandu and Emmanuel Rerimoi who assisted the overall coordinator John Kimetto.

The most overworked personnel were physiotherapists John Kyui and Daniel Sang who deserve a big pat on the back.

These gentlemen were always on call, massaging tired muscles and ever worries about injuries suffered after each training session.

All in all, Kenyan athletes showed the world the stuff they are made off. An area of concern, though, is the men’s senior 10km race in which Uganda reigned supreme. Kenya needs to re-engineer in this area.

With the world cross country championships done and dusted, athletes can now shift focus to a busy season ahead.

The American sports apparel manufacturer Nike is already working on a new uniform with a heavy red theme ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.