Now I'm at home, and read the posts of last week. About which World Champ are you asking ? If you ask about Helsinki, I want to answer during next days, when I'll have more time. Regarding Edmonton, I don't know if being more happy for the performance of Shami, that is a new guy with very good potential in the future, with me from 2003 when was the best specialist of 15k on the road with the name of Richard Yatich, or to be angry for his mistake.
I went to Edmonton for winning as team, and my hopes for the individual victory were expecially from Nicholas Kemboi. During our training in Italy, I had a group (after Helsinki) at sea level, with Nicholas, Shami, Sultan Zaman, Ahmed Jaber and, for the first 2 weeks of September, Rodgers Rop and Philip Manyim. I had in Italy also other runners, like Wilson Busienei or some young athlete (Besluke Kiplagat, for ex., no. 3 in 2000 SC in Youth WCh), and organized groups together, with different goals. For example, Nicholas and Shami went for 25k at 3:05 pace making a workout for basic high intensity endurance (SPECIAL endurance), while Rop and Manyim went for 30 and 35kat the same pace making a workout for SPECIFIC Endurance, at Marathon Pace. On the contrary, Kemboi and Shami went for a track session with 5 x 3000m in 8:23 / 8:28 recovering 400m in 2:00, and for them it was a SPECIFIC Endurance workouts, while I put in the same training (but only 4 times) Manyim and Rop for their training of SPEED.
Using a modulation in the same type of training, with different technical goals for different athletes and events, is a system that I always adopt, because I think that, when it's possible, to put together athletes of omogeneous level is very good for their training and their motivation. So, I handle the group sharing it in some smaller group, in order to have always 3-5 athletes together for any type of workouts.
The fact that Manyim won Berlin in 2:07:41 was very important also for the moral of the other guys going to Edmonton.
But, last Sunday, Nicholas fell down in the shower, breaking his forehead but expecially having an impact on his back, that provoked a big hematoma to one muscle, making difficult for him to lift his right leg.
We tried to cure with physiotherapy and some injection on Monday and Tuesday, when he was able running 40:00 easy feeling not very much pain. But our travel from Milan to Edmonton via Frankfurt - Calgary, lasting longer than 20 hours, was very damageous for him.
The weather in Edmonton was very cold (4-6 degrees) with a lot of rain. This fact locked completely his back, and Nicholas was an hero in finishing the race, but without any reason for the team.
During all the workouts of the last month (from Bruxelles when he ran 26:51) he always showed to have something more than Shami. Two weeks before WCH, Nicholas ran a very easy HM in Torino, winning in 62:10 under the rain, after running the first 5k in 15:49 (34.0 back the leading group) in order to have some stimula for running faster the next 15k (58:50 at 20k, that it means 43:01 for 15k between 5 and 20 : in Edmonton the first 15k were in 43:28...), and was able to recover soon, having a very good workout on track the next Thursday.
Regarding Shami, now he will run Venice Marathon, with the goal to run under 2:09. I want to prepare this runner for the main events of the future : Asian Games in Dec 2006, World Championships 2007 and Olympicsw 2008, of course in Marathon.
Talking about the situation that we faced in July in Kenya, our problem is that Qatar doesn't allow us to change our plans, that I need to make 4 months before the big events. The Olympic Committee gives us all the tickets that we need for following the plan, but we cannot buy other tickets or changing the previous plan. Of course, I want to change this situation in the future, because it was ok with a normal team (may be 3 months of training camp without competitions for going to an institutional Championship), but is very bad with top runners, that have to update continuosly their training, according to the results of training and the conditions of weather.
Anyway, I cannot be deluded for this season, during which like Qatar we won in different WCh gold in steeple with Shaheen, silver in HM with Shami, bronze in long cross with Hassan, we had bronze as Team both in short and long cross, we won Asian Championships of cross, gold in Asian Ch. in 5000 / 10000 / Steeple with Kwalia - Rashed - Obaid, gold in Arab Ch. in 5000 / 10000 both with Rashed (that is junior) and we had the seasonal no. 1 in Mile with Bashir.
My problem is that I have to work with Qatar Federation for changing something in their organization.
In my group, Kenyans, Ugandians and Tanzanians are together Qatari in training. This may be sometime a problem, because they don't have a Federation supporting them like Qatar. So, I personally support these athletes, because I want that the group can be together longer is possible. Athletes like Mosop (bronze in WCh), Busienei (winning of 5k/10k/HM in World University Games), Mark Bett (26:52 in 10k), John Korir, HM runners like Kimugul (60:15), Kirui (61:07), Marathon runners like Manyim (2:07:41), Rop, Mark Saina (winner of LA), Daniel Rono (winner in Madrid), Samson Kosgei (winner in Bruxelles), Steven Cheptot (winner in Prague) or ladies like Dorcus Inzikuru (World Champion of Steeple), Zakia Mrisho (6th in Helsinki), Irene Kwambai (30:55), Iness Chenonge (14:54) and Marathon runners like Rita Jeptoo (7th in Helsinki with 2:24:32), Barsosio (2nd in Paris with 2:27:17), or Salina Kosgei (winner in Prague this year and Paris last year) needs to be followed in very precise way, if we want to be sure about their results. For example, this year I couldn't follow Paul Kosgei because he had personal problems, and he was not able to compete also if last year he bettered the World Record of 25km.
So, I repeat : the biggest problem in Kenya is a problem of organization. If we are able to do this, we can have a lot of results, using ugali and milk, not some drug like many idiots continue to think among the readers of letsrun.