New World Athletics VP Tuwei hits the ground running
Team Kenya stars pose in Riga on September 30, 2023 ahead of the World Athletics Road Running Championships. From left: Catherine Reline, Beatrice Chebet, Lilian Kasait Rengeruk and team official Sally Barsosio, who is also Kenya’s first world 10,000 metres champion.
What you need to know:
- Tuwei, who is also Athletics Kenya’s President, made a presentation on the Kenyan running ecosystem at the Radisson Blu Riga Hotel where Kenya’s marathon legend Ibrahim Hussein – the first black man to win the New York and Boston marathons - also reflected on his journey in the 42-kilometre race.
In Riga, Latvia
Kenya’s newly-elected World Athletics Vice-President Jackson Tuwei spent his first assignment with the global athletics governing body dissecting the future of road running at a two-day conference also attended by organisers of elite road races.
Tuwei, who is also Athletics Kenya’s President, made a presentation on the Kenyan running ecosystem at the Radisson Blu Riga Hotel where Kenya’s marathon legend Ibrahim Hussein – the first black man to win the New York and Boston marathons - also reflected on his journey in the 42-kilometre race.
Tuwei said with massive improvements in global distance running technology, it was imperative to discuss the competition’s future and exchange ideas with various experts on how to embrace these changes.
“When you look at the studies going on, you will see so many new issues coming up… there is development of technology, development of race organisation… we have seen world records broken and we must understand what the impact of these records is,” he said on the sidelines of the World Athletics Global Running Conference.
“The wavelight technology for example is new technology, and there’s also new technology in shoe development. We need to catch up with these changes.”
And despite the changes that have seen the mile and five-kilometre road races included in the World Athletics Road Running Championships, Tuwei urged young athletes not to be too excited and jump onto road running before featuring in track races.
“I stand by what we have done before. It’s not advisable for young athletes to run road races,” Tuwei, also the Vice President of the Confederation of African Athletics, said.
“Let us maintain that they (young athletes) grow up from the youth levels to the seniors and when they have done enough on the track, then they can run road races.
“If you see all the good road runners, like Eliud Kipchoge, they have gone through the system. You don’t rush onto road races when you haven’t done enough on the track.
“Kipchoge is almost 40 and is still running marathons well because he went through the track system before running the road races and marathons,” argued Tuwei.
