Abraham Cherono leading the men's Long Race (© Getty Images)
Even two weeks after the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Lausanne-La Broye, Switzerland, Kenya’s running fraternity is still trying to heal the wounds caused by the strong Ethiopian team which went away with four out of the six individual titles – including the two won by the extraordinary Kenenisa Bekele in the men’s events.
Benjamin Limo, the bronze medallist in the short course race and himself a world champion four years ago, still cannot believe what happened to them: “Imagine me, I had sore legs on Sunday, one day after my race. I would not be running even one fast kilometre, but Bekele was playing with my team-mates in his second race. How is this possible?“
Before leaving for last weekend's London Marathon, five time World champion Paul Tergat was quoted as saying: “Our athletes didn’t do better because they were exhausted after the training camp at Embu.“
A contrary opinion was expressed by Jimmy Beauttah, a Nyahururu based coach for the Kim International Management Group: “Some athletes were relaxing knowing they would travel to Switzerland anyway.“
The strongest criticism in direction of the athletes came from Joshua Okuthe, the chairman of the Kenya National Sports Council.
“We have already lost a few titles in the past three years and we have been talking about going back to the drawing board. It is a high time our talk was translated into action,“ he said.
According to Okuthe, Kenya’s problems start with their runners taking part in too many races around the globe for little money. He believes the Ethiopian runners’ secret is in selecting to compete in only a few, well paid races.
Okuthe claimed that Kenyan runners were the most exploited in the world and that Athletics Kenya has to put some level of control on both the runners and the agents. “Without this control it will almost be impossible to progress.“
Okuthe was supported by legendary runner and National Olympic Committee chairman, Kipchoge Keino, who pointed out that every country, including her neighbours Uganda and Tanzania, were targeting Kenya.
”If we don’t change our approach, we shall lose more and more often,“ he said. And he added: “Compared with the Ethiopians our athletes have one big weakness: they have no finishing kick. That’s how John Kibowen lost the gold medal to Bekele, and Peninah Chepchumba to the Ethiopian girl (Dibaba) in the junior race.“
Yet, the position of head coach Mike Kosgei is not in danger. Mainly because the Kenyan men won their 18th successive team title in the long race and Kenya remained number one in the “battle of the team standings“, not only by four to two team golds but also by overall points (113:138), and according to the Kenyan opinion, the World Cross Country Championships is first and foremost a team competition.
David Okeyo, secretary general of Athletics Kenya commented, “lets accept that Bekele was the better man in the spirit of sports and also remember cross country is a team event.“
Okeyo also defended athletes against accusations that they had burnt themselves out.
“These boys trained, ate, slept and prayed together for one month before they travelled to Switzerland“, he said. “We should not think about the cross-country season anymore. We should now concentrate on the track and make sure we shall prepare a strong team for the World athletics championships in Paris.“
