Is It Official..are Ethiopians better runners than Kenyans?

Needs to be seen at world cross as well...

On the track over 5000 and 10,000 it's looking like it.

Over steeple and the country it's not so evident. individuals Ethiopia clears up but in hte team races is still open at least on the mens side.

Not helped by hte top Kenyans not seeming to race XC anymore. Songok/Choge looked to be the future of Kenyan distance running but haven't been that active as far as I've seen.

37 Kenyans have run sub 2.10 in the marathon this year...

Tomi2Nuts wrote:

When a Kenyan says they are "from another planet", its time to pay attention and wonder if the Ethies really are the top runners in the world. Is Kenyan world domination over? Will the Ethies have enough depth to lock the Kenyans out of all medals?

Any reports of the demise of Kenyan running seem terribly premature. But, like the U.S. basketball team, the Kenyan runners can no longer win just by showing up, and the relatively unorganized and diffuse "free agency" of Kenyan running is probably not ideal for winning Olympic and world championship medals.

kenyans of some hue won every men's race in osaka above 400m apart from the 10k ( & if an unknown 3rd stringer in ?irungu had continued to push in the last coupla kms when kennster was hanging on a by string, they might have got silver there )

Kenyans are in no way out of it. If the mindset that some other nationality is fro nother planet creeps in they can look to see their performances go down as we've seen with a lot of western countries.

In no way am I denying the tremendous base of talent over there in E. Africa (combined with almost no fat people, which makes the talent evident). But for the people who really should be competing with the best, no matter what country they are from, they sell themselves short when they take themselves out of the game.

Part of the reason Kenya was good is because of self-belief. If he can do that I can do that. I think the same thing was going on with British milers years ago. Unless the genes have been dilluted in the last 20 years I woudl say that lost confidence is a big player in why they're not competing on the same level.

Having "no fat people" in East Africa does not make the talent evident...thats quite a generalization. There are fat people in East Africa, and they are often the more wealthy. Also, all East Africans are not amazing runners. For every amazing Kalenjin that we seen winning marathons, there are millions of other East Africans that are not able to run at this level. There are even millions of Kalenjin that are not able to run to close to that level. A few have just been blessed with an amazing gift.

Don't kid yourself. The average Kenyan is a lot faster then the average American.

oh of course...but they're "not being fat" has nothing to do with it...if Kenyan children lived in America, they'd be chubby also

their

njxc wrote:

There are even millions of Kalenjin that are not able to run to close to that level. A few have just been blessed with an amazing gift.

Yes, the Nandi.

Ethiopians have a lot of goats.

njxc wrote:

Having "no fat people" in East Africa does not make the talent evident...thats quite a generalization.

It does make the talent evident. If people in the West were that skinny in general you would see a lot more world beaters emerge. And I said there were almost no fat people. The vast majority of E. Africans are not fat.

Tomi,

First of all, John Korir should never, IMHO, wear the Kenyan colours. Never.

He has never won anything for us-to the best of my knowledge.

Please don't get me wrong, I hav enothing against this lad. To me, he should only participate in road races and make his money.

Second of all, there are many kenyans who can never be lapped by Bekele who opted to skip the event namely; Josphat Ndambiri, Martin Mathathi Irungu, Moses Masai, Moses Mosop, Micah Kogo et al.

Kenya always bags bronze behind Bekele and Sihine who are invincible in the 10k.

Third of all, the fact that Kenya loses 10k to Ethiopia is in no way a testament that Ethiopia has better runners than Kenya.

How about the 800m, the 1500m, the steeplechase, the marathon?

We are also almost tied in the 5k but will always lose it to Bekele.

The Ethiopian women are superior to anyone in the 5 and 10k. That is not in doubt.

I agree that it is ridiculous to say Ethiopia has established total dominance. If you take away Bekele, no one would be talking about this at all. That's not to mention that the two most successful ethnic Kenyans right now - Bernard Lagat and Stephen Cherono/Shaheen - no longer represent Kenya. Think about it this way... Martin Lel, Sammy Wanjiru, Barnard Lagat, and Shaheen vs. Bekele, Sihine, Gebremariam, and...? The Kenyans are every bit as good but, as a previous poster mentioned, politics and disorganization are hinder them.

I think you are getting your John Korirs mixed up.

Captain Fantastic wrote:

I think you are getting your John Korirs mixed up.

No I am not.

I am talking about the John Korir the man.

Captain Fantastic wrote:

I think you are getting your John Korirs mixed up.

On second thought, I don't know which John Korir ran in Addis Ababa last week. He may be a different guy though. That said, both should not be in our NT.

Tomi2Nuts wrote:

and wonder if the Ethies

Will the Ethies have

Calling Ethiopians "Ethies" is about as unbelievably lame and cheesy as calling a marathon a "mary".

olympic 5k and 10k medals (gold/silver/bronze):

5/10K: ethiopia 6/3/5 (14)

kenya 2/6/4 (12)

Olympic 5000m

ethiopia 2 1 1

kenya 1 3 2

10000m

ethiopia 4 2 4

kenya 1 3 2

obviously kenya cleans up in the steeple and gets more in the 8/15 as well.