of course the Kenyans are great at every MD and Distance event but they are truly on another level in the Steeple Chase (won the gold medal in every olympics since 68 they haven't boycotted), and I wonder why.
They don't tend to have great hurdling form and sometimes its really ugly (Conselus Kipruto hops over them and is the best in the world right now)
So what is it.
Depth
that is a good question and one I personally wonder myself, If I had to make a guess I would say it's their freaky long legs just let them hop over barriers and water jumps
Their steeple technique is awful! It is their speed between the hurdles. That is all.
Success breeds success.
They've tried to dominate everything, but they only succeeded at steeple because it's an unpopular event that nobody really wants to win all that badly.
If the Epiopians weren't better than the Kenyans at 5000/10000, they'd attack the steeple and take it over. Every good Epiopian would rather run flat events.
Kenyan has actual athletes in track and field, not the rejects from other sports as in the US (e.g. Rupp).
Steeple is the only real test of athleticism on the track.
/thread
They're the only try-hards in that event.
They have to jump over lions every day on their 25 mile run to school.
Admin wrote:
They're the only try-hards in that event.
I was going to say that they're the only country that cares about it, but that sums it up pretty nicely.
I'd guess that it's because Kenya has a surplus of sub13 5k runners. So some of them move to the steeple so they can actually win and make money. What other countries have a surplus of sub13 runners? The steeple world record holder beat El G and ran 12:4x for 5k.
Justin91 wrote:
Depth
This was my first thought- depth
We don't have our best runners in the steeple. Kenya is much deeper than other countries. So their B team runners that run the steeple are better than our B team runners that run the steeple.
They have no fear of the event as most american kids do!
They are natural hurdlers who also have endurance.
Ethiopians as an ethnicity are typically short. So, while Kenya and Ethiopia dominate the distances together, Kenya is alone in the steeple.
It is a matter of popularity and numbers, not talent. Kenyans certainly aren't the best endowed nation for this distance, not even in East Africa.
Sudanese Nilotes are taller, Ethiopians and Somalians are leaner.
I don't why it is so hard for to accept that at any type of physical endeavor folks of African origin will be superior. They have superior bodies, and I suspect are superior intellectually and spiritually as well.
Dude, have you taken a look at Africa lately? Not exactly the center of world power and culture.
Yo Momma wrote:
I don't why it is so hard for to accept that at any type of physical endeavor folks of African origin will be superior. They have superior bodies, and I suspect are superior intellectually and spiritually as well.