Opinion: Kenyans still distance kings despite Olympic disappointments

Note: this opinion piece is in response to a Globe and Mail article written by Paul Waldie, entitled “London Games shows the world is catching up to Kenyan distance runners.” The article can be read in full by clicking here.

If you follow track and distance running you know that there are have always been many international players at every distance. It was no surprise to track enthusiasts last week when Mo Farah (a Somalian born Briton) and Galen Rupp (an American) medalled. They are both highly ranked 10,000m runners and Farah was among the favourites to win both of his events at the London games.

When one looks back through the history books the names like Shorter, Prefontaine, De Castella, Drayton, Cram, Ovett, Coe and El Guerrouj jump out as the best of their respective generations. There have always been many high quality athletes popping up here and there around the globe. Some are strange anomalies of otherwise average running nations. Others are products of great national traditions.

But no other national distance running tradition has ever rivalled what is currently going on in Kenya. Going into London, many expected Kenya to obliterate the competition and win multiple gold medals on the track. That did not take place, which has led many arm chair pundits to take potshots at Kenya’s claim as the premier running nation. This knee-jerk desire to tear down Kenyan running is unfortunate. It’s unfortunate because it’s based upon anecdotal evidence at best and is, quite frankly, much ado about nothing. In fact, just the opposite is true.

Regardless of the medal count at this year’s Olympic Games, Kenya, as well as Ethiopia to a slightly lesser degree, still very much dominates distance running. No other nation seems capable of turning out runner after runner that can compete at the very highest level. And these are not just ‘international calibre’ runners. These are world beating athletes that only really have each other as competition.

In the wake of  Ugandan Stephen Kiprotich’s remarkable Olympic victory, it’s very tempting to refer to him as an ‘unknown’ and paint him as the David defeating the great Kenyan goliath. But Kiprotich was not an ‘unknown’ anymore than many of the other up-and-coming marathoners in the field sporting a promising sub-2:08 PB before Sunday’s race. And although he did not have the impressive resume of international wins sported by his Kenyan adversaries, he was only marginally less known than either of them. If anything, the three Kenyans selected for the Olympic marathon only received press and carry some minor amount of name recognition because they were cryptically chosen out of a jaw dropping list of talent. It seemed that there was more discussion of who wasn’t picked to run for Kenya than there was a buzz surrounding any one of these three runners as a clear favourite to win gold.

Uganda is also being framed as a nation that does not typically field world class runners. This is also deceptive. Uganda has a decent running tradition and has fielded competitive cross country teams internationally, as well as some very fast track athletes, such as Moses Kipsiro, who is a top 5000m runner. The catch is that they just aren’t superstars. Then again, neither are many of these Kenyans or Ethiopians. Of all the Kenyans and Ethiopians that crowd the rankings of every distance running event, very few are household names. This is in part because they are not being marketed as the face of any particular brand in the Western world, but also because because the competition is so stiff and the talent level so deep that their doesn’t seem to be any one dominant figure on the East African running scene.

Perhaps the last time one name captured the imagination of the running world was way back in 2007. And how things have changed in a mere five years. We all seemed to know who Haile Gebrselassie was after he set the marathon world record in Berlin. But this was only because it seemed at the time that no one would ever break his record. Many believed that no one would ever be able to run the marathon faster than Geb and he became a living legend. But when his record fell it seemed to usher in not an era of another singular runners’ strangle hold over distance running, but instead it opened a flood gate of capable East African runners. Makau, Mutai, Mutai, Mosop, Kipang, Wanjiru, Kirui, Korir, Cheruiyot, Little Cheruiyot, Gebremariam, Merga, Kebede — and the list goes on. Now, it’s not just about whether one once-in-a-generation talent can break his own record. Now it seems it’s about how soon a new record will fall, and if yet another new face will be the record-breaker.

Although an exciting race and a celebration of distance running, the Olympic marathon is a very poor race with which to evaluate the state of the sport. An event like the Olympics always seems to produce oddball winners: Stefano Baldini, Abera, Thugwane, Hwang Young-Cho, Gelindo Bordin… All marathon gold medalists and none of them were really ‘big names’, nor does anyone today, minus the purists, know who those guys even were or that they were Olympic winners. There are tons of guys out there that can run in the 2:08-2:10 range from every country on earth. There are very few, however, that can consistently produce sub 2:05 runners. In fact, there are only two such nations: Kenya and Ethiopia. Using a race like the Olympics to evaluate the state of marathoning is lazy and misleading.

Ironically enough, the disappointment surrounding the East Africans’ performances at the London games, and in particular in the marathon, was borne out of the assumption that Sammy Wanjiru changed the way the Olympic marathon would be ran after Beijing. After the gutsy Kenyan destroyed the field on a hot day in 2008, which like Kenyans do in major marathons, many immediately assumed that it would become a speed oriented race dominated by the world’s best, and not a tactical affair that allows the an outlier into the mix. Many expected that after Wanjiru broke things wide open at the Olympics that the Olympic race would just start to mimic the marathon majors and be dominated by the faster East Africans across the board. In truth, this was all an illusion. It was just a one-off speedy Olympic marathon. And, in retrospect, it wasn’t even that speedy by the current standards.

The reason why the majors now produce fast times and ‘track meet’ style races is because each one attracts a large field of up-and-coming East Africans. They have pacers, and they are willing to run all out in the first 30K to see if they are ‘on’ for the day in order to take home the big pay cheque and the victory. At the Olympics, by contrast, each nation only gets to send three runners. No pacers and typically unfavourable courses usually equal a slower, tactical race. And although this year’s race wasn’t fast (nor did anyone really expect it to be, quite frankly) it was actually nevertheless controlled by East Africans.

Kenya and Ethiopia remain incredibly dominant. If you wanted to have a marathon that really incorporated the best in the world, the start line would be almost entirely dominated by East African runners. And the same goes for pretty much every other distance.

Yes, there are still other individuals from various non-East African countries in the mix: Farah, Rupp, Centrowitz, Willis, Makhloufi, Manzano, Uceny, Petrova, Kim Smith, Flanagan, Davila, Shobukhova to name a few. A pretty healthy list of world class runners. But on the whole Kenya and Ethiopia are still king. This isn’t more evident than when you consider the fact that everyone who is running at the very highest level trains in Kenya. That includes the ‘unknown’ Ugandan gold medalist Stephen Kiprotich. In fact, he also grew up very close to the Kenyan border. One could argue that the only difference between him and his Kenyan competitors is that he was born on the other side of an artificial boundary arbitrarily drawn across the countryside. If it had been drawn a few kilometres to the west, Kenya would be celebrating an Olympic marathon sweep and the Olympic marathon headlines would have an altogether different spin on just what went done in London.

In truth, Kenya is not losing it’s grip on distance running — it’s strengthening it. Kenya is becoming the global centre of distance running. Every national program sends their athletes there to train. Many international facilities, both private and representative of various nations from around the world, are now active in the Rift Valley. Also, more and more younger Kenyans are now running longer distances and competing at an earlier age internationally. You will soon see very young Kenyans and Ethiopians winning marathons. There is little doubt that the already crowded field of high level East African runners is about to get even more crowded and competitive.

Sure, Kenyans didn’t win their expected pull of gold medals. But they took a ton of track medals overall, and will continue to produce a seemingly endless roster of the highest calibre of runner. Along with the Ethiopians, Kenya’s distance runners will dominate every marathon and diamond league event from here on in. A stunning example of this was the Paris Diamond League 5000m race in early July. It was perhaps the most competitive distance race ever run. Eleven of the fifteen finishers ran sub 13:00. Six of them ran sub 12:50. All eleven were from Kenya or Ethiopia.

Although Kenyans didn’t get run too many victory laps around the Olympic Stadium in London, it’s still inarguable that they reign supreme as easily the highest quality running nation on earth. It appears that the only way to quell their dominance is to reduce them to a maximum of three athletes per event. And thus, the Olympics become somewhat second rate in terms of the level of competition. One could argue that we saw the real world class races before the even games began when Kenya and Ethiopia held their Olympic trials.