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News09 Sep 2001


Kenyans back on top

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Kenyans back on top
Paul Gains for the IAAF

10 September 2001 - Kenya’s medal haul of 3 gold, 3 silver and one bronze is their best since 1993 and signals a new era of team unity at the expense of the self-centred approach that overran the squad intermittently.  Some would point to the authoritarian style leadership provided by the Kenyan Amateur Athletic Association as the reason for the change, as it finally beat down the rebellious nature of leading athletes and their athlete representatives.

Two years ago the agents were summoned to Nairobi for a meeting with the threat they could lose their right to represent Kenyan athletes if they failed to appear. The athletes themselves have been reined in too and reminded most forcefully that running for money and running for their country are often conflicting ambitions.  But there is a much simpler explanation for the rebirth of Kenyan running.

Two months before Edmonton 2001 the Kenyan AAA selected Mike Kosgei to be its head coach for the championships after five years of what some observers call a politically engineered exile.

Prior to the 1995 world championships in Gothenburg the famed coach was removed from the team for reasons known only to him and the Kenyan AAA.  A three year coaching stint in Finland followed.

”Three years in Finland, it was a very, very good experience but three years is too short,” Kosgei explains. “Because I was working with young athletes like Annemari Sandell, who became junior World Cross Country champion. But then the contract ended and I went home.”

As for his relationship with the Kenyan AAA today Kosgei is guarded. But he clearly has the confidence of the athletes though he will readily admit he is not a technical coach. He is, however, a supreme motivator, and a cunning tactician. It is no small feat to convince a world class runner such as Sammy Kipketer, to sacrifice himself - and possibly $60,000 in prize money - for the good of the team.

”To answer the question we talk about the team,” Kosgei says in his soft spoken way, “We had to talk as Kenyans.  We had to plan as Kenyans. We didn’t care who will win what. At the end of the day it is Kenya. We wanted gold.”

This single minded purpose resulted in a great deal of controversy when the Kenyan AAA ordered all world championship team members home from Europe for a training camp. The legendary Kip Keino defended the decision saying the athletes were part of a team and should be proud to wear the Kenyan vest. Of course, many athletes would have preferred to remain in Europe and earn money. The flight between Europe and Edmonton is a lot shorter too. But while the federation took the criticism, it was Kosgei himself who was behind the move.

”I know most of the athletes wanted to come directly to Edmonton from Europe but I told the federation that I cannot stay alone in the camp without the athletes.” he explains, “So the federation had to take action to tell the athletes to come home. I believe in reaching the athletes, seeing what they are doing and then motivating them to work together.”

”They have to cooperate because this is middle and long distance running where they need each other. It is not like a sprint where you don’t need anybody and you don’t even remember your friend in the next lane. This is distance running where there is endurance, there is psychology, so you need assistance all the way. You see your partner and that motivates you to move more. And that is what we did.”

Olympic 1500m champion Noah Ngeny was removed from the team because he failed to report to Kosgei’s training camp in Kararani, Nairobi. Another casualty of the ultimatum was the world’s fastest marathon woman, Tegla Loroupe, who later announced that she would not run again for her country. But the vastly improved results in Edmonton seem to have justified the Kenyan AAA’s decision, even though Kosgei’s training camp was only ten days long.

Charles Kamathi and Richard Limo were surprise gold medalists in the 10,000m and 5,000m respectively and it was Kosgei’s acumen that helped them reach the podium.

”I was also coach in 1991 and you might remember how the race went. Yobes Ondieki went off hard and he was alone. I had told him to take off and go,” Kosgei says with a smile. ”And you remember John Ngugi in 1988? He also took off. As a tactician you need to be observant. What was on my mind (in Edmonton) was our experience in the marathon on the first day when Sammy Biwott came up to the stadium and then the Ethiopian kicked (past) him. We learned a lesson that these fellows (Ethiopians) always wait until the end before they just go. We had to change the strategy to see that their speed was taken away before the finish line.”

But the tactics could also be sophisticated. In the 5,000m, the 20 year-old Richard Limo – who eventually won the race - charged out to the lead taking the pack through the first 400m in 59 seconds, a suicidal pace, before he dropped back. Kosgei wanted the field to think that Limo was the rabbit for his teammates John Kibowen and Sammy Kipketer. When these two took up the pace Limo stayed at the back, an apparent ‘victim’ of his early surge. The fact that he managed only 10th in the Sydney Olympic final, gave the plot credibility.
”We planned our game and I was the one who was going for the gold,” Limo reveals, “even though others wanted an open competition. So I said to myself that because the argument has gone my way, if I lose the race they will be so ashamed of me because I promised them. So I had to win!”

”We came here as a country, we didn’t come here as individuals. So we worked as a team because I know that this time is mine and then another time I will have to work for the other guys. We co-operate as a team. If we come here as individuals everybody is looking for the gold but there is only one gold and we are three.”

Limo’s victory followed Reuben Kosgei’s steeplechase gold and also Kamathi’s 10,000m gold medal performance which ended Haile Gebrselassie’s eight year reign as world champion. Limo admits that the Kenyan AAA ultimatum didn¹t bother him in the least because he had already decided to train in Kenya with Kosgei, 3,000m steeplechase world record holder Bernard Barmasai and 1500m runner Enoch Koech. Their Eldoret base was about 45 kilometres from the village of Cheptigit, where Limo grew up with his three brothers and three sisters. They are still there farming the land.

Now Limo plans to use his success to generate further Kenyan glory. In his room in Edmonton he showed me a letter from a neighbourhood primary school that want him to come and speak to the children. He says he will be pleased to do it. It was the sight of other world class Kenyan runners who first inspired him to become a distance runner.

”My home is at high altitude, about 2,000m above sea level,” he explains, “So most of the runners come to my place to train because it has a nice forest, a nice place, hilly, so most of the people from outside my place come to train. At that time I was young and when I saw these people from different places come to train in my area I thought, I must be a runner.”

Like Kosgei and  Barmasai, Richard Limo is managed by Global Sports Communications, the organisation managed by Jos Hermens. His  philosophy, which has worked so well with both Haile Gebrselassie and Gabriela Szabo, is for athletes to race when fit but not too much.

While other Kenyans come and go, Limo sees himself competing for many years now. And why not? He is just 20 years old.

“I am planning to stay longer in athletics because most of the time you see young athletes they shine and then they disappear on the track,’ says this sublime talent, who followed up his victory in Edmonton with another inspired performance at the Zurich Weltklasse meeting. There he ran a personal best of 12:56.72, the fastest time in the world this year.

“I am still running so I don’t think of my future. Maybe I stay in sports for five or maybe ten more years. But who can say? Life can be tough. You have to decide what you are going to do after your career but not when you have nothing. Look at Paul Tergat? He has made a lot of money so he is doing his (import-export) business now. I have made some money but I cannot plan anything because you need so much capital.”

Limo’s first major purchase was a house for his mother. He will likely earn plenty more cash to invest in his and his family’s future. And, he certainly won’t be the only one. How many youngsters at Cheptigit Primary School will be affected by Limo’s success and decide also to become runners? If they are fortunate to have Mike Kosgei motivating them as well, then Kenya’s distance running status will be safe for many years to come.

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