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.