Who’s next for Kenya?

Oct 01, 2011 Sports

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Giddings deserves a chance

 

Situated in the east on the African continent, Kenya had long built a proud tradition of producing some of the greatest middle and long distance runners in the world.
Some of them include the great Kip Keino, who has a school named after him which churns out some of the best young distance runners in the country, Paul Tergat, Daniel Komen, Moses Tanui and current middle distance star David Rudisha.
These great athletes time and again produced performances that stunned the world of athletics and many have credited their ability and subsequent success to hard work, but more importantly to the warm and humid climate that the country enjoys which according to many is conducive to producing world class distance runners.
There is no doubt that Kenya’s dominance in distance running in unparalleled and despite the remarkable success of athletes from countries such as Ethiopia, Algeria, Morocco and a few other African states, none of them could come near the accomplishments of Kenya.

Ethiopia has produced greats such as Miruts Yifter, Haile Gebresellasie, Abebe Bekila, Kenenisa Bekele, Meseret Defar, while Algeria had such stars as Noureddine Morceli and Said Aouita.
Guyana’s Cleveland Forde left in 2004 to attend the Kip Keino School in Kenya and it was due to his outstanding ability and dominance on the local and regional circuits that prompted GOA President K.A Juman Yassin to utilize his office to initiate a conversation with Keino to have the Guyanese go to Kenya to further his training with the hope of doing well at the Beijing Olympics.
Well as we know, Forde returned home a few years later from the sojourn not exceptionally better, but still the most dominant distance runner in the Caribbean during which time he has added a few South American 10K titles to his name.
Currently, the Kenyans are undoubtedly the best distance runners in the world and have repeatedly swept the podium in many races and have even added the fourth spot to their collection in quite a few.
Forde went to Kenya at the age of 20 and though some may say that a distance runner begins to develop strength and endurance around that period, his improvement was marginal and many felt that the journey was a waste of time due to the times he recorded after returning to Guyana.
Well, the reality is that not many of us know the true facts pertaining to the limited improvement Forde made after being exposed to such a high performance facility.
Could it be that he was intimidated by the Kenyans, was it that they shared very little with him or was it that conditions during his stay influenced a negative approach mentally which in effect impinged on his performance on the track.
One thing is certain, judging from the proud history and the current mind-boggling successes of both Kenyan male and female athletes all over the world another attempt to invest in one of our promising young athletes someone like Nathaniel Giddings cannot hurt.
This young and rapidly improving athlete who hails from the Linden community in Upper Demerara has been amongst the most consistent distance runner in the junior category and has even become a threat at the senior level as well with no one taking him lightly after a string of impressive performances lately.
Once again, it will take the GOA to act and after years of being in office, the current President would have been able to attach a few more names to his list of influential executives that he could call on to get negotiations underway with regards to a similar arrangement that Forde benefitted from, while the Athletics Association of Guyana must have a few names of their own to call on for assistance in this regard as well.
Naturalised Englishman Somali-born Mo Farah has had a dream season this year and this only occurred after it was felt that he could not remain in England and train under conditions that were not suitable to make him a world beater.
He decided to leave London and go to Kenya to train with the natives and the rest is history.
Farah after years of disappointing results, enjoyed the best year of his career in 2011, gaining gold and silver medals in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres respectively.
The point here is unless the opportunity is presented to one of our emerging young athletes to get training at the highest level we will never be world contenders.
Just to emphasise the dominance of the Kenyans and why it is the place for Giddings to go, the East Africans have been phenomenal recently.
In three of the recent long distance races in different parts of the world, the men have dominated the top four positions, while the women have won as well in some of the fastest times recorded in history.
Giddings seems to be the most promising of the lot and at the stage and age where he could even surpass the exploits of Forde, but failure to provide the opportunity could rob Guyana of a good prospect of doing well internationally.
As far fetched as it may sound, Farah even by his own Coach’s admission did not look to have the quality to be a world beater, but after showing admirable dedication to the training he underwent in Kenya got to this year’s World Championships with the fastest times and the best chance of winning gold despite the presence of the best runners in the world.
Giddings deserves a chance.
Below is a review of the Kenyans recent dominance:
Utrecht, The Netherlands – Kenyans Philip Langat and Winnie Jepkemoi cruised to comfortable wins at the  61st edition of the ABN AMRO Singelloop Utrecht 10Km on Sunday.
Langat, one of the pre-race favourites, took the men’s win at this IAAF Bronze Label Road Race in 27:28, well ahead of compatriots Timothy Kiptoo (27:43) and Nicolas Kemboi (27:51).
Jepkemoi clocked 31:31 in the women’s race, clocking a new course record. Elziba Cherono was a distant second in 32:11 to finish a Kenyan 1-2. Rkia el Moukim of Morocco, the winner last year, was third just one second back in 32:12.
One year ago, Leonard Patrick Komen set the World record at this race clocking 26:44.
Jesper van der Wielen was the fastest Dutchman clocking 28:58 to finish seventh overall.
Kenyan star Patrick Makau sets marathon WR in Berlin
1. Patrick Makau, KEN 2:03:38 WR*
2. Stephen Kwelio Chemlany, KEN 2:07:55
3. Emannuel Kimaiyo, KEN 2:09:50
4. Felix Limo, KEN 2:10:38
Women’s results-
1. Florence Kiplagat
Keitany smashes race record in Lisbon
Women’s results-
1. Mary Keitany KEN 1:07:54
2. Helena Kiprop KEN 1:08:57
3. Caroline Kilel KEN 1:10:03
4. Rita Jeptoo KEN 1:10:34
Men’s results-
1. Silas Sang KEN 1:01:13
2. Lucas Rotich KEN 1:01:38
3. Benson Olenakery KEN 1:02:19
4. Sammy Kigen KEN 1:02:31

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