It struck me when I was reading Jonathan's piece from Glasgow today when he wrote that Rudisha never did World Indoors. I understand why the GOAT might not do it but an up and comer like Wanyoni wouldn't want 40k?
Plus Kerr was asked about Jakob Ingebrigtsen saying he could have beaten Kerr blindfolded at Millrose, but for once he had no response, saying only, "No comment."
I don't know if this still holds true, but there was a time when Ethiopia wanted winners and medalists at international championship meets and their federation had exerted considerbly more control of where their athletes were allowed to race than the Kenyan federation did.
Isn’t it possible he will get similar compensation if he wins the relay at Worlds XC again (prize $$$ + Kenyan govt.)? That was my assumption at least.
It is a good question Rojo. I will say that of my college mates I was like the only one who seemed to survive the indoor season and run well outdoors. I am not sure why that was but I wonder if some of the Kenyans don’t want to risk injury or peaking now. That probably isn’t the answer but I can see why some may consider it to be a sideshow to the main event outdoors.
I learnt the other day from Ethiopian sports photographer Aman Ahmed (@angasurunning) that apparently Ethiopia has 0x indoor tracks and only 9x standard athletics tracks in the whole country for athletes to train on?!
You can count on one hand the number of Kenyans in the last 50 years, who've enjoyed running indoors or willingly (without exertion from management or whomever) showed up for an indoor event.
You can count on one hand the number of Kenyans in the last 50 years, who've enjoyed running indoors or willingly (without exertion from management or whomever) showed up for an indoor event.
Bad time of year for them really. This is right in the middle of 'potato' season.
Those are all good reasons for not competing during the indoor season – for anyone other than the Kenyans. With such insane internal competition, I would expect them to be falling over each other to race anything that could advance their career.
You can count on one hand the number of Kenyans in the last 50 years, who've enjoyed running indoors or willingly (without exertion from management or whomever) showed up for an indoor event.
Bad time of year for them really. This is right in the middle of 'potato' season.
The same westerns don’t seem to care that much about cross country! And how exactly would Africans federations select who goes or not! Indoors is just some thing we don’t do! The same as many never ran races like 600m, 1200m, mile, 2000m or two miles in their lives! It’s cross country season baby!
Wanyonyi is confirmed for Kenyan Trials at 2k vs Reynold Cheruiyot/Abel Kipsang. Their management has decided it’s better to be able to train and race XC domestically vs travel to Europe/USA twice if you don’t want to jump into a heat cold. I get the reasoning.
Those are all good reasons for not competing during the indoor season – for anyone other than the Kenyans. With such insane internal competition, I would expect them to be falling over each other to race anything that could advance their career.
Totally agree with this and I don't think that an interest in cross country would trump the benefits that the runners and Kenyan sporting industry would get by giving opportunities to the 1B tier of Kenyan runners.
Likely the reason lies on the side of lack-of-vision/incompetence of federation/government officials
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