Olympics 10km trials in US a bad move by Athletics Kenya

Athletics Kenya’s decision to hold trials for the long distance track events to the London Olympics in the USA is probably one of its worst decisions ever! AK plans to pick 5 athletes in both events men and women to race in the Diamond League meeting in Eugene, Oregon in early June.

Ostensibly to salvage Kenya’s reputation in the major championships where we haven’t won a gold medal since 2005 in the men’s 5000 and 10,000 metres, AK is taking this drastic step in trying to pick a strong team so as to change our fortunes at the Olympics.

But I disagree with this decision and their reasons for even considering it in the first place because it all just doesn’t make sense. First, the Olympic trials aren’t a normal event here in Kenya. It is the biggest local athletics event in an Olympic year!

The men’s 5000 and 10,000m races are generally some of the most exciting races in an Olympic Trials event here in Kenya. Not to hold these events in such important trials is to deny thousands of fans their only opportunity to watch their stars in person before the Games. Many fans from the Rift Valley, South Nyanza, and Coast and even from the North Eastern regions travel to Nairobi to watch the Olympic Trials. It really wouldn’t be much of an Olympic Trials to speak of without these two events in the programme.

I must say this. As a former athlete who participated in several trials, the pressure cooker environment, high altitude and the toughest competition in world made for the best preparation for any championship to follow. It was in some instances, tougher than the actual championships and in others, second only to the Games itself. If you made it through the Kenyan trials, you gained the utmost respect of your fellow athletes and sky high confidence going to the Olympics.

This is why I wonder why AK wants to make it worse in the long run, by eliminating the very variables that toughen up our athletes in the first place.

The idea that Kenya needs to replicate the conditions that our distance runners will face in London is ridiculous, if not laughable. London’s conditions in the summer aren’t so difficult to deal with that we have to acclimatize, compared to previous Summers Games like Atlanta ’96 and Beijing ’08 that were far more humid and oppressive. Besides, Eugene in June and London in August are so climactically different that it really doesn’t make sense. I know. I lived and ran in both cities in those months for many years.

Why AK feels that selection at low altitude would be beneficial for our long distance teams is beyond me when the high altitude factor is one of our greatest advantages and a training variable that other international athletes seek in order to be competitive in the long distance races.

Kenya currently has the most “A” qualifiers in the men’s 5000, and 10,000m for the Olympics. Therefore, to only select the top 5 fastest to race against each other in these two events is to be completely unfair to the rest of the qualifiers.

Why then have a qualifying standard? What’s the point in having only 5 Kenyan athletes competing against lesser athletes from other countries when they could be competing against their superior countrymen at home?

If AK implements this unpopular decision, it would effectively eliminate any surprise performers coming through the institutional and provincial rungs and demoralize those athletes who are in the second tier ranks by denying them the opportunity to compete against the very best in the country.

If, as one of the reasons given by AK to shift the long distance trials to the US is the poor performance in these two events in the last two Olympics and World Championships due to the strenuous qualifications in our explosive trials, what can they make of the double victories of Vivian Cheruiyot in Daegu and Berlin in previous years, yet she went through the same system?

Significantly, our women’s fortunes are rising given the quality of competition locally, so it can’t possibly be the system of qualification. Besides, in previous championships, our men’s long distance teams had to face the top runner in the world at the time, Kennenisa Bekele and Mo Farah and there is not much they could do to prevent them from winning given that these champions both trained in high altitudes like our team.

Nonetheless, I feel that all these reasons AK are giving us as just excuses. Excuses justifying their trip to Oregon. It is not in the best interests of the athlete seeking to be selected to the team to London, to go and compete in Oregon and yet he or she could be a lot better off fighting for that spot here in Nairobi.

It could well be due to sponsorship influence that the trials are being held in Oregon. The Prefontaine Classic meeting is the premiere Nike athletics event in the world and they make it known that all their top athletes must attend this Diamond League event. 

Kenyan athletes's lack of fashion sense

When Vivian Cheruiyot won the Laureaus Sportswoman of the Year award in London earlier this week, all eyes were on her not only for her outstanding accomplishments on the track last year, but on her evening dress.

The biggest and most prestigious sports award in the world brought to focus the celebrated winners’ fashion and dress sense. Case in point, Vivian’s silver evening dress has been subject of discussion in various celebrity fashion blogs about how it should have matched her amazing athletic achievements.

That notwithstanding, Cheruiyot is part of a new breed of athletes who are increasingly keen on projecting a fashionable image by developing a sense of style as their stars rise. Other local athletics stars have done so with some even consulting stylists to help them with dressing so that they can be presentable within current trends.

It is often said that sporting types aren't the most fashionable people on the planet.  Of course, athletes' training schedules do not always permit them to be at fashion's call. But the problem also stems from the fact that sports people get too comfortable at their level and feel they can dress however they want. While some think they are dressing well and that they have good style, when really everything they wear is utterly tragic!

Now before I go any further, I will acknowledge that there are a few athletes out there who do have good style. And there are many others in sports such as Rugby, Football and Volleyball that really hold it down when it comes to dressing well.

Why the sudden surge in stylish athletes? One reason: corporate sponsorships. Sure, fashion and sports have a long history, but their relationship has grown over the years with big name brands stepping up and sponsoring or linking with sports stars for marketing purposes. These formerly distinct realms have collided through their key actors: the athletes, the designers, the public, and money.

Designers are catching on too, with brands like Kiko Romeo, who now dress the Kenya Rugby Sevens team, are fuelling the re-emergence of male sports stars as fashion models and have cottoned on to the fact that sports stars have lots of fans that will pay to look like them.

More to the point, it's a relationship that makes sense. All those athletic bodies honed to perfection and athletic tracks of the world are just like catwalks but with a lot more Lycra.

This relationship between style and sports works on another level as well. Sports stars like Maria Sharapova and David Beckham have changed the face of fashion within their own worlds and affected street style for millions of consumers each year. The looks on the court and on the field have changed. Sports uniforms and the way players present themselves have also undergone distinct transformations over the years.

Now athletes are trendsetters and icons in their own right--beyond the court or field and they are embracing fashion more enthusiastically than ever.

So is Kenya’s sports scene in need of a style icon? Certainly! We need a star that can inspire others with his or her fashion or sartorial sense. While Kenya has many fantastic athletes, there hasn’t been an individual whose fashion sense is as celebrated as their athletic performance.

Now that it is becoming commonplace for our champion athletes to be invited to gala and award presentations, it would be great to have some of them dress in designer Kenyan evening wear to give them identity and showcase pride in being Kenyan.

Despite their various follies, the line between sports and fashion continues to blur as we approach a new era of style and sportsmanship and it is increasingly important to make a fashion statement as well as a sports statement.

Changing fortunes of Kenya's sprinters

With Kenya being the epicenter of the distance running world, one may ask what ever happened to our sprinters. In past years, the sprints have suffered a downward spiral in the numbers and performances. This was not the case before, as can be attested by Kenya’s illustrious past in the sprinting events.

However, that is now changing.

A positive and refreshing development in the local sprints scene took place last week that got me excited about our preparations for the London Olympics later this year.

A sprints and field events meet was held to spot budding talent and give sprinters that rare chance to gauge their fitness levels ahead of the local athletics season.

This is the first time that sprinters have had an opportunity to compete, albeit in odd distances, so early in the season. More importantly, Athletics Kenya is taking the right steps in preparing athletes in this category for the chance to attain qualifying times early enough for the Olympics in August.

Kenya has some exceptionally talented athletes suited to the shorter distances, who for the lack of support, technical training, and exposure, will never discover just how good they are.  There is so much talent to be harnessed especially in the urban areas. But we are losing out on this talent to other sports such as football, rugby and hockey as there are no programmes to entice them to athletics.

 It is simply a question of identifying real talent at an early age and exposing them to proper training. Sprint training is very technical and involves the development of specific muscle groups. A system must be developed to identify budding talent and expose them to the best training.

And that is what is partly being worked on right now by the national sprints coach Stephen Mwaniki. Some of the weaknesses such as technical expertise and developmental programs are now being availed to athletes and coaches alike. The results are that there are some exciting young sprinters like Alfas Kishoyan won silver in 400m in World Youth Championship last year coming through the ranks. In addition, these young sprinters now have role models to aspire to, just like their esteemed long distance colleagues.

 In the 60’s for example, Seraphino Antao won two gold medals in the Commonwealth Games and the 4x400m squad won Olympic gold and silver medals in consecutive games. Kenyan 400m runners have also had a fantastic reputation in the world scene with a few winning medals in championships such as the African and Commonwealth Games.

In recent times, Kenya has won gold in the 4 x 400m relay at the Delhi Commonwealth Games and the Maputo All African Championships.

The women sprinters too have had their fair share of success. The likes of Alice Adala, Rose Tata-Muya and Ruth Waithera often matched and beat their much vaunted competitors from Nigeria in the 80’s winning continental championships and going on to represent Kenya in the biggest show, the Olympics. Waithera even made history by making the Olympic final in the 400m. Evidently, of the excuses put up for the decline, one of them can’t be that Kenya’s sprinters are historically slow.

If one considers the sprint records in Kenya, there is certainly no lack of talent. If Kenya could produce fabulous sprinters in the 1980s then surely it can do so now. If European countries like Ukraine can produce world record beaters, so can we. If Jamaica with its limited resources can create a system that consistently produces world record beaters then so can we.

 In some ways, having a strong sprints group is the key to our future success in the middle distance events. This is because it these athletes feed the next generation of middle distance runners of 800 to 1500m. Many former sprinters like Pamela Jelimo have made that natural progression from the 400m to the 800m with great success.

With the Men’s 4 x 400m squad already qualified for London and two 400m and 400m hurdlers runners with qualifying times, the local sprint scene looks set to be rejuvenated and heading back to its old glory days. However, in order to gain real traction, our long sprinters must first be able to qualify and compete regularly in the Diamond League as this would give them real speed off the blocks, the necessary experience and exposure to medal at the Olympics.