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.