Kenya's marathon domination

The marathon is beyond doubt one of the most difficult and attractive races in athletics. The inherent, resonant beauty of the classic distance manifests itself in many ways, and chief among these is that the marathon is perhaps more ethnically diverse than any other major world sport save for football.

No other country in the world has the quality or the depth that Kenya possesses in the marathon. In many ways, our distance supremacy is a symbol for everything that is great about the marathon. Our country is among the worlds poorest, yet we continually produce runners who test the body's physical limits and the mind's imagination.

 Kenya’s dominance of the marathon however this year is truly remarkable! We have produced a total of 85 marathon winners with a few more coming up before the year end.  But 2011 has truly been extraordinary as the emerging results, quality and depth are absolutely astonishing.

For the first time ever, Kenyans have swept the World Marathon Majors with spectacular victories in New York, Chicago, Berlin, London and Boston marathons and each time the course records have been shattered including the world record in Berlin. Kenya also defended its World Championships title in Daegu which counted towards the Majors series.

Doubly impressive were the Kenyan women who made history by sweeping the marathon medals at the World Championships, and winning three out of the five marathon majors.

This is also the year that the world record returned to Kenya since Paul Tergat last held it. Patrick Makau broke the venerable record held by Haile Gebreselassie. Incredibly, Makau is only the 3^rd fastest ever Kenyan this year as Geoffrey Mutai and Moses Mosop ran faster in a wind-aided race in Boston in April.

Mutai is probably the world’s hottest marathon runner at the moment having run the fastest marathon ever and both runs in both tough New York and Boston faster than the easy Chicago course that is famous for its world record attempts and successes.

Indeed 2011 has been a bumper year of Kenya with fast times, course records and personal bests recorded all over the world.

Sample this, even with the ridiculously fast Boston times not counting in the world rankings, Kenyans occupy all the top 22 times ran this year and the first non Kenyan posting a not too shabby 2.06.31 time in 23^rd place.

2011 is the third consecutive year in which marathon times have been dropping fast .In the last three years, the average of the top 10 times have been faster than what the world record time was in 2002.

And the athletes re-writing the record books have been getting younger. In 2001, the average age of the top 10 men was 28.5. A decade later, it's 26.5.

The Marathon used to be the "next step" for aging elite runners after a successful track career. Stars like Haile Gebrselassie and Paul Tergat, both of whom set world marathon records, didn't turn to the marathon until they were 29 and 30, respectively, after dominating the track record lists.

Now it is the first step because of the prize money and the appearance fees (starting with the late Samuel Wanjiru). Runners can take home a million dollars just for running 2 races in a year. Yes they have to perform well to do so, but it's the incentive that is drawing the top talent and with that top talent comes faster times.  In 2001, six different countries had a top-10 men's marathon runner. In 2011, it's Kenya one through twenty two!

In Kenya now many 22 year old athletes in their prime are skipping the track scene and gravitating to the classic distance mostly in search of the instant riches the marathon provides. 

  

So how did we come to this and what does this mean for the future of Kenya marathoning?

Marathons and road races in general are far more lucrative than track races. Generally there are only about 2-3 major 10km track races in the European circuit in a year compared to the numerous lucrative road races all over the world. So what’s an average 10, 000m runner to do if he has to earn a living from his sport? The choice is obvious!

The stunning depth of the Kenyan marathoning scene definitely poses tough questions for Athletics Kenya when it comes to the championship team selection.

Do they pick just the three fastest performers of the year or are we ready for a marathon trials format like the track performers. The facts are the Kenyans marathon runners are too deep and run too many races where the top guys don't go head to head. We have one guy that is the World Champion, One guy that is the World Record holder and two additional guys that have run faster than those two on Boston's course.
Plus a few others that have won major races and others that may actually peak next year.

There would obviously be a backlash to this as the agents and the other marathons would lobby very strongly to make sure that doesn't happen. Imagine its London... who's going to show up at Boston or Rotterdam?

There are arguments for both formats but given the sheer depth of marathon runners under the Olympic and World Championships qualifying times, which at the moment is about 75 athletes, the time is ripe for a marathon trials for any major championships, say in February of a particular championships year.

Geoffrey Mutai, the fastest ever at the moment, is in favour of such an arrangement. And I agree with him. Bring on the top 15 marathon runners together for a trial wherever and the top 2 are automatically selected with one decided by committee based to championship experience

Possibly as a result of our athletes’ successes in these marathons around the world, there is a chance that road race organizers will limit or discourage our Kenyan athletes to compete or even win in their events in favor of their local athletes.

The negative side of this is that we are becoming victims of our own success. With the numerous numbers of athletes seeking competitive opportunities around the world, there is a sense of frustration among race directors and federations that there just too many Kenyans in their races.

A 2.06 marathon runner in Kenya is an average runner ranked only in the top 25 in the world which means that that if he doesn’t consistently win  or place in the top 3 in any event he runs in, his income will dwindle significantly. Compare that to say a top European athlete who runs 3 minutes slower than him and earns triple his income!

With the production of seemingly endless world class marathon athletes from Kenya, it is inconceivable that limitations or discouragement by race organizers will lessen their prowess on the world marathon scene.