Star Kenyan marathon runner banned over training no-show

"As for everythin gelse, like poor training methods and "killing" athletes in training camps, we are basically agreed. I also have a problem with it. However, athletes have to heed the directives of those incharge once they decide to attend qualifiers. Just in case Ak succeeds in what it wants to do to Chepkemei and Masai, this will serve as a very good example. It seems they never learnt from Noah Ngeny three years ago."

Or maybe they need to stand up for themselves and what is REALLY good for Kenya...delivering in-shape athletes to World XC by allowing them to train with their own coaches. If no one rocked the boat and stood up to "those in charge", there would be no reason for them to change things for the better.

Can Susan Chepkemei win the London Marathon once this farce has ended?

cool post name.

SonNative, i do believe you are incorrect. there were no, and usually never are, any restrictions of what races american track and field athletes can do. the national office does NOT "know what's best for them".

USA triathlon did this very thing (forced all athletes into their own little "trainign camp") and look what happened. crummy performances across the board by us triathletes.

sorry, AK does not "know what's best" for the athletes, if that was the case, then the athletes would be in training camp all year long, allowing the "best" coaches to make them better. they (the AK personnel) can't, plain and simple, that is why the kenyan athletes don't want to go there, so they can have a chance at WCCC. the ethipians are probably laughing there heads off, realising that the kenyans are giving them the team title by training witht eh AK national group. too bad.

Athletics Kenya has no idea where its athletes are based in Kenya; they have no idea (or care) what they do for training pre-Nationals.....then they say "stay away from our boys, only we know what is best for them" for the next 4-5 weeks. Of course the end result is the athletes are in far worse shape at WXC than they were (when left alone with their coaches) at National XC.

Same thing happens before track season; AK knows nothing nor cares of what anyone does, then as soon as the Trials are run it's a case once again of "stay away from our boys, only we know what is best for them". End result is not good. Did anyone notice that after their month-long camp pre Athens, Kenya carried two injured athletes (Kibowen & Chebii) into the Olympics. Everyone in the team knew.....but did Ak or its coaches even know? Did they care? Or were they too busy getting kitted out in their gear for the big trip overseas.

It's almost comical the ineptitude of AK and its officials. Certainly not helpful for the athletes, but what does AK care of the athletes. It seems it may shock some to hear but it cares nothing for them.

Athletics Kenya has no idea where its athletes are based in Kenya; they have no idea (or care) what they do for training pre-Nationals.....then they say "stay away from our boys, only we know what is best for them" for the next 4-5 weeks. Of course the end result is the athletes are in far worse shape at WXC than they were (when left alone with their coaches) at National XC.

If this is correct, how come Kenya has won so many WXC Individual and Team Championships? These camps are not new, the obligation to turn up for the pre WXC camp at Embu has been in existence since Kenya started to really roll on the world stage.

I would say that Ethiopia has become stronger than Kenya recently precisely because they keep a strong hold on where and when their athletes train and compete. The Ethiopians don't have the camps as Kenya does, but they are obliged to turn out for team training sessions and race where they are told, when they are told, much as they used to do in Kenya.

Not if, but is the case!

Kenya succeeds of course because they have so much natural talent to call on. In my opinion they have in fact underachieved for many years (see previous reasons, ie AK) given the incredible level of talent.

The camps are a legacy of the days (not so long ago) when many athletes (prime example John Ngugi) were half-fit at the beginning of the camp and so responded to the brutally hard training regime. That tends to succeed in getting an athlete into shape quickly, but of course doesn't lead to a shape that can be sustained over the course of the year.

Now that the athletes are training professionally and in a far more disciplined (ie year-round) fashion, the brutal nature of the camps are counter-productive to such athletes - hardly being what you need in the last month before the championship. Brutal? Sure, as many as 6-8 very tough sessions each week. Maybe ok for the hard men like Kibowen, but for talented youngsters like Kipchoge & Songok, hardly ideal....

SonNative wrote:

Hi SonNative, could you please drop me an email

all4data[at]gmail.com

look forward to hearing from you

A good many of the Kenyan runners are on the government payroll (either prison or military) and I'm sure the support they receive could be construed as an obligation to represent the country. Also remember that the US went through a similar ego-powertrip by atheletics managers about 30 years ago.

SonNative wrote:

You also cited some things that I have thus far forgotten but that said, AK is doing a great job.

The problem I have with these runners is that they show up for the qualifiers and than start their own small little games. Why don't they stay out altogether. We do have people who can fill their positions after all.

NativeSon = Kiplagat