What is happening to Ethiopian Marathoners?

ethiopian wrote:

I mean, how can we keep up with them?:-)

You're asking us???

ethiopian wrote:

These are the major races that I remember an Ethiopian winning this year:

London (Kebede)

Paris (Tola)

Amsterdam (Feleke)

Wait 6 days and you can add NYC. Then they have won the most competitive (London) and the biggest (NYC) marathon in 2010. It's about quality, not quantity.

Better EPO testing?

The coaches and Kenyan athletes are tired of having so many different Ethiopians outkick them. In the marathon Kenyans have started working on their finishing speed and getting away from the Ethiopians in the 65-85% portion of the race. Eventually the same tactic will be employ at much shorter distances like 5000m and 10000m on the track..

Kenyan marathoners are training harder and are more serious athletes?

Their suppliers got a better deal from the kenyans

are you implying that Kenyans are dopers?

How do Ethiopians train? Is it different from that of the Kenyans? The Kenyan ways are pretty well known, thanks mostly to 2 books by Toby Tanser. Is there a book, article or any information on Ethiopian training? A side by side comparison would be interesting.

if Geb read this thread, he'd giggle

No, he just has more names for Jos Hermens to exclude from races.

Do you know what kind of car Geb drives? A Dodge.

Do you know what Geb's favorite food is? Duck.

Do you know Geb's favorite country dance? The sidestep.

Do you the name of Geb's dog? Skip.

Do you know Geb's method of birth control? Withdrawl.

Do you know what Geb translates to in German? Dieter.

kenyans have quantity

ethiopians have quality

leonard stotch wrote:

kenyans have quantity

ethiopians have quality

It seems that way to me to. Which is interesting, since Ethiopia's population is about twice that of Kenya.

leonard stotch wrote:

kenyans have quantity

ethiopians have quality

Definitely true if we're talking about track, but in the marathon Kenyans have an abundance of both.

ethiopian wrote:

There is too much Kenyan domination this year. These are the major races that I remember an Ethiopian winning this year:

London (Kebede)

Paris (Tola)

Amsterdam (Feleke)

Most of the Ethiopian marathoners are actually doing good times. For example, Worku, Feyisa, Kebede, Feleke all doing 2:05s. But it seems the Kenyans seem to be a a bit better all the time. Have there been any changes in the way they train? I mean, how can we keep up with them?:-)

Ethiopian,

This is how it is;

We have the men and you have the women.

No matter how one looks at it, it is a win win situation.

moron dat later wrote:

How do Ethiopians train? Is it different from that of the Kenyans? The Kenyan ways are pretty well known, thanks mostly to 2 books by Toby Tanser. Is there a book, article or any information on Ethiopian training? A side by side comparison would be interesting.

Read that book and trained with Ethiopians - pretty much the same

They were training for 10km - 1/2 marathon though so maybe some differences in longer distance training

FootlockerFan, maybe you are right on the money there. I watched the Frankfurt marathon on sunday, and it was incredible the way Kipsang outkicked Tola the last few kilometers, it looked as if he was running twice as fast! Also, in the world championship last year, Meseret Defar was outkicked twice in the last 150 meters or so. So the outkicking strategy that Ethiopians have been so effective at is not working anymore, as the Kenyans seem to have mastered that too. So what now?:-)

FootlockerFan wrote:

The coaches and Kenyan athletes are tired of having so many different Ethiopians outkick them. In the marathon Kenyans have started working on their finishing speed and getting away from the Ethiopians in the 65-85% portion of the race. Eventually the same tactic will be employ at much shorter distances like 5000m and 10000m on the track..

Ethiopia is about 15 years behind Kenya in economic development. You will notice this when comparing Nairobi (Kenya) and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). Addis looks like a city in the 60s with a lot of ancient, dilapidated buildings and services to match. I was there (in Addis) in 2009, and could not even get an ATM machine. It was light years behind in development.

This means that most Ethiopians don't have the time, or want to take the risk of embarking on an Athletics career. Only those who are lucky to find a club to take care of them will bother to run.

Addis, the capital, is a lousy place to run. No parks, no green space, nothing for distance running. Only those with money can take a car to the hills some 20km outside the city center.

I was also surprised that Assela city, the place where Geb comes from does not have any trails or any nature places to run. There is one stony track in town and the rest is roads....tarmac. No dirt trails as in Kenya. You have to go outside the town to run in nature. Otherwise it is roads, or running around the outside of the track in Assela.

All those points show, no surprise, that Kenya will probably always have a lot more depth than Ethiopia.

Ghost in Saudi.

www.kfupm.edu.sa

Ghost, you might have a good point there. I was born and raised in Addis and I can relate to what you are saying. I was visiting a few weeks ago, and wanted to go for a run with some European friends (first time ever in Addis, as I started running after I left Ethiopia some years ago), and we ended up going to Entoto hills some 10-20kms from the center, because there was almost no other suitable place to run. And it is suicidal to run on the streets (unless you do it very early in the morning).

Ethiopia has some youth. Worku, Lilesa, Kebede, Feleke, Cherkos and many more. These guys are all very fast marathoners but have only done a few. Wait until they get more experience. Over the next decade we will see more races like Chicago, with fast times and great racing. Gebremariam debuts in NYC and should do very well. He beat many in the field already this season in a half in Philadephia.