Early planning key to claiming our place in championship marathons

Last Sunday, Evans Chebet completed a clean Kenyan sweep of the men’s titles in the 2022 Abbott World Marathon Majors series.

The Abbott World Marathon Majors is a series of six big city marathon races featuring the Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York marathons. Eliud Kipchoge had set the ball rolling by winning the Tokyo Marathon on his debut in the Japanese capital on March 6 in a course record two hours, two minutes and 40 seconds before Evans Chebet claimed the Boston title in April in 2:06:51.

Amos Kipruto then bagged his first WMM title, winning the London Marathon in 2:04:39 before the Greatest of All Time (G.O.A.T.) Kipchoge lowered his course record in Berlin, winning in an amazing 2:01:09.

Benson Kipruto, who trains alongside Amos and Evans in Kapsabet, claimed the Chicago honours in a personal best 2:04:24 before Chebet wrapped it up last Sunday at the “Big Apple”, winning the 51st New York City Marathon in 2:08:41.
Amos Kipruto had also managed a personal best 2:03:13 in finishing second behind Kipchoge on the streets of Tokyo.

Third straight Olympic title

Currently, Kenyan runners occupy 15 of the top 50 fastest times of 2022 with Kipchoge and Amos Kipruto miles ahead at the top, a very good problem for Athletics Kenya (AK) selectors to have as we prepare for next year’s World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Already, Kipchoge, who turned 38 at the weekend, has indicated his desire to go for a third straight Olympic title in Paris after his back-to-back wins in Rio (2016) and Tokyo last year. This leaves two slots up for grabs in Team Kenya which the AK selectors must fill in good time to allow for proper, long-term preparations.
But first, the selectors must pick the team for Budapest as soon as possible to avoid the embarrassment witnessed at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham where flawed registration and violation of anti-doping rules saw Kenya field just one athlete — silver medal winner Margaret Wangari Muriuki — in the women’s marathon and two — Jonathan Korir and bronze medallist Michael Githae — rather than three in the men’s race. At this year’s World Championships in Oregon, Kenya also fielded just two runners (Geoffrey Kamworor and Barnabas Kiptum) instead of three.

Such confusion would be blamed squarely on late selection and lack of proper planning by both AK and National Olympic Committee of Kenya managers, which is annoying given the embarrassment of talent we boast.

Early selection for Budapest will also ensure that athletes picked adhere strictly to the pre-competition, anti-doping protocols including religiously clocking the “whereabouts” requirements and staying on the straight and narrow in handling medication or any other procedures that would require compliance. Especially given the worrying trend that has seen almost 30 Kenyan athletes flagged for flouting various anti-doping rules this year alone.

It was painful watching Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola break away to win the world title in Eugene this year, something we must not allow to happen again in Budapest next summer as we seek to reclaim the men’s marathon title first won by Douglas Wakiihuri in 1987 (Rome) and subsequently clinched by Luke Kibet (2007, Osaka), Abel Kirui (2009, Berlin and 2011, Daegu) and Geoffrey Kirui (2017, London).

While we are spoilt for choice in men’s marathon running, there’s every reason to worry about our dominance in the women’s race which continues to face fresh threat from our Ethiopian sisters.

Former world champion Ruth Chepng’etich might have run 2:14:18 this year in Chicago, falling just 14 seconds short of compatriot Brigid Kosgei’s world record, but the performances by Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa (2:15:37, Berlin), Almaz Ayana (2:17:20, Amsterdam), Yalemzerf Yehualaw (2:17:23, Hamburg) and Genzebe Dibaba (2:18:05, Amsterdam) should certainly cause some jitters.

And especially considering that Ayana and Genzebe, who dominated on the track, have shifted to the marathon with world 10,000 metres record holder Letesenbet Gidey joining the fray with her eagerly-anticipated marathon debut in Valencia on December 4 where she has vowed to obliterate Kosgei’s three-year-old 2:14:04 world record.

Rather than have one pool of track and field-cum-marathon trainers for major championships, we should ideally put together the best marathon coaches we have in the country, pay them well and start scheming marathon wins in Budapest, Paris and beyond.

Recipe for disaster

I’m talking about experienced, tried and tested hands like Patrick Sang, Richard Metto, Eric “Commando” Kimaiyo, Sammy Bii, Abel Mutai, Joseph Cheromei and Kapsabet-based Claudio Berardelli who has masterminded recent Kenyan big city triumphs.

It’s reassuring that AK President Jack Tuwei has already assured they will start preparing early for Budapest.Anything short of that will be recipe for disaster!

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My deepest condolences go out to the family, friends and fans of Wilson Kiprugut Chumo, Kenya’s first Olympic medalist, whose burial is this Saturday in Kericho County.

By winning bronze at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Kiprugut opened the floodgates for our latter day stars to follow and we owe him a huge debt of gratitude.

His 1964 bronze medal is national treasure and should be preserved at the new National Museum at Uhuru Gardens — along with the medals and artefacts of our other trailblazers — for our children, grand-children, great grand-children and future generations to come to savour. May your soul rest in eternal peace, Mzee Kiprugut. Your legacy lives!

Makori is the Managing Editor (Sports) at Nation Media Group.

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