Untold Stories: Why We Should Know More About East African Runners

Steve O Vette wrote:

Stories like:

"Dirt farmer age 27 bumps into Kenyan Olympian and decides to train, runs 2:02 marathon before disappearing back into oblivion."?

Or: "Kenyan woman, sedentary and overweight after having several kids, decides to jog to get rid of baby weight, then absolutely demolishes road WRs magically, after a few years (before disappearing back into oblivion)"?

Yes, these stories are "amazing"...as in unbelievable.

Yes but that is what said, Kenyans are best have the mass media stereotypes then some pesky journalist snooping around asking questions they don't want want asked.

Absolutely ZERO interest in East African runners. Sorry not sorry.

Freddie in the Rain wrote:

Absolutely ZERO interest in East African runners. Sorry not sorry.

Then try to resist threads like this, man.

I enjoyed the article and would love to learn more. I imagine the problems are based in the following:

-racism,

-humility (most of the E.African runners/people I know are extremely humble)

And they have absolutely made our sport the best it's ever been. When an America dopes he gets to come back and be a hero...just sayin'

Watch the Letsrun published front page investigation video of journalists who followed Mo Farrah's Kenyan pacing buddy around some slum as HE (MO FARAH's PACING BUDDY) purchased EPO from local Kenyan 'pharmacists.' Then watch smiling MO speak too much on camera as he praises his Freddie in the Rain friend as such a loyal pace buddy. In all sorts of weather, we all ship together. ALL FRAUDS!!!!

That's why I have zero interest in so-called East African success stories.

El Keniano wrote:

You mean "demise of the sport" in Britain? We don't care because they're crap runners anyway. Won't be missed.

Lol, very true. May the "East African" runners reign supreme! I am not interested in a mediocre British or American runner.

Interesting... wrote:

El Keniano wrote:

You mean "demise of the sport" in Britain? We don't care because they're crap runners anyway. Won't be missed.

Lol, very true. May the "East African" runners reign supreme! I am not interested in a mediocre British or American runner.

You as an individual are completely irrelevant though.

The unrestricted and almost encouraged doping from East African athletes has already done for the World Cross. The unrestricted age cheating has done for certain age group events, and no doubt more to come.

The rise of East African distance running has done irreparable damage to the sport, during a time sports like Athletics and distance running specifically needed all the help they could get.

A couple of geeks saying 'I love watching African cheats dominate en-masse' isn't going to change anything there.

But you are saying that ALL E.African runners are cheats then...which I am sure you don't mean...bc then ALL AMERICANS are cheats.

go do some research and read a little more about why these runners are so good, a big part of it is their culture...and they've been kicking our american butts long before any EPO

RebelZ wrote:

But you are saying that ALL E.African runners are cheats then...which I am sure you don't mean...bc then ALL AMERICANS are cheats.

go do some research and read a little more about why these runners are so good, a big part of it is their culture...and they've been kicking our american butts long before any EPO

Not really.

There have been good East Africans for a long time, but the big rise came at exactly the same time EPO hit the pro peloton.

You apologists say this is just a coincidence. We all know it's not.

Not all the Africans are cheats, but this domination was fueled by rampant and unapologetic cheating, and created a non-level playing field.

trollism wrote:

RebelZ wrote:

But you are saying that ALL E.African runners are cheats then...which I am sure you don't mean...bc then ALL AMERICANS are cheats.

go do some research and read a little more about why these runners are so good, a big part of it is their culture...and they've been kicking our american butts long before any EPO

Not really.

There have been good East Africans for a long time, but the big rise came at exactly the same time EPO hit the pro peloton.

You apologists say this is just a coincidence. We all know it's not.

Not all the Africans are cheats, but this domination was fueled by rampant and unapologetic cheating, and created a non-level playing field.

Yet these cheaters still can't be caught because, as you know, East Africa is at the cutting edge of scientific research and application of synthetic enhancements to improve athletic performance whilst evading detection. The East Europeans and Russians were running Neanderthal systems compared to the highly organised and efficient East African models. African scientists are singularly focused on dominationof one part of one sport, ignoring others like swimming and cycling and not prioritising their unlimited resources on eradicating inconveniences like malaria which only afflict everyone in the region.

Meanwhile, Western sports scientists, rather than advocate for a blanket ban like they did with Russia and declare East Africa a sports pariah, continue to study and have their best athletes live, train and learn from the East Africans in order to learn from them. There is no time of the year that you'll not find a group of western runners, including British runners, training in the Rift Valley. Which gets me to your real issue: being butthurt that no one emerged to replace Coe, Ovett and Cram. Those days are gone for good. Never coming back. Deal with it.

Anyway, it was reaction to Kenyan success in the 1960s and 70s that popularised altitude training around the world in the first place. Thankfully, moost of the world appreciate and want to learn what it is that makes East Africans stand out. What these people don't understand is that if altitude was all it took, Bolivia and Nepal would be long distance powerhouses too.

El Keniano wrote:

trollism wrote:

Not really.

There have been good East Africans for a long time, but the big rise came at exactly the same time EPO hit the pro peloton.

You apologists say this is just a coincidence. We all know it's not.

Not all the Africans are cheats, but this domination was fueled by rampant and unapologetic cheating, and created a non-level playing field.

Yet these cheaters still can't be caught because, as you know, East Africa is at the cutting edge of scientific research and application of synthetic enhancements to improve athletic performance whilst evading detection. blah blah blah

Or......they could just not test them and let them get away with anything, cutting edge or not.

trollism wrote:

El Keniano wrote:

Yet these cheaters still can't be caught because, as you know, East Africa is at the cutting edge of scientific research and application of synthetic enhancements to improve athletic performance whilst evading detection. blah blah blah

Or......they could just not test them and let them get away with anything, cutting edge or not.

Or as IAAF records show, Kenyans are now the most tested athletes on the planet.

trollism wrote:

Or......they could just not test them and let them get away with anything, cutting edge or not.

Yeah well, this is not happening (anymore), but for sure there are fewer *unannounced* blood controls in Kenya and especially in Ethiopia than here.

One of the big questions is: is it more advantageous to be less controlled or to have access to the cutting edge drugs and a (Nike) lab for your own tests (just DNS if you overdosed) and a NADO that excuses missed and positive tests?

The answer depends on the superiority of the cutting edge drugs, among other things.

^ Good point.

This is absurd. The man posts a piece for us to read and receives immediate disparagement.

[quote]El Keniano wrote:

Excellent piece by Michael Crawley for the Guardian. Bravo.

I actually think this is a crap article for so many reasons.

Let's take the BBC for example. They talked about Mo Farah a lot during the 10,000m final. You'd have to be a buffoon not to understand why. He's a British athlete and by far the best during the 2011-2017 era.

Nobody cares about a fifth place finisher. Nobody gives you a medal for coming fifth. In order for "the Ethiopian runner" to be given media recognition then then he needs to win / medal at least.

Now research 100 seconds to beat the world. This was shown on the BBC and features a Kenyan runner (Rudisha). Shock horror this wasn't mentioned in the one sided article.

I'd say if you're consistently a top athlete then the media will talk about you, regardless of your nationality. Bekele, Kipchoge, Rudisha, Kiprop, Kamworor etc always get a good mention in the media when they perform. Hell Bekele is usually the headline when he pulls out!

El Keniano wrote:

Or as IAAF records show, Kenyans are now the most tested athletes on the planet.

Probably not true, but certainly their results in London indicate that things are changing. Now if they would do the same for the EPOpians...

It Is the Insulin, Stupid wrote:

El Keniano wrote:

Or as IAAF records show, Kenyans are now the most tested athletes on the planet.

Probably not true, but certainly their results in London indicate that things are changing. Now if they would do the same for the EPOpians...

Kenya was second on the medals table. What a disaster.

Aren't Rupp and Centro tested like +20 times per year each?