Why does the Dubai Marathon attract way more Ethiopians than Kenyans?

Dubai's prize money certainly attracts Kenyans. It's just that the race doesn't take them. The recruiting process is corrupt. It's rumored that money is exchanged in the form of commission kickbacks between organizers, agents, and athletes ever since the days of Haile running. Not sure if that's actually the case, but there has been an obvious preference for Ethiopians for years now.

Also what is surprising is the absence of American elite runners.

LetsRun.com wrote:the men's top 10 at Dubai has consisted of 25 Ethiopians, 4 Kenyans, 1 Moroccan and 1 Bahraini

31 people in the top 10? Damn.

Appearance money. In order to get Bekele you have to pay Anbessa's share of the budget. That doesn't leave much leftovers for the hyenas. So if you are the race promoter who are you going to feed first, the rest of Anbessa's pride, or the hyenas.

douglas burke wrote:

Also what is surprising is the absence of American elite runners.

For whatever reason, Americans HATE HATE HATE traveling abroad to try to run a fast marathon. The only people who really have done it in recent years that I can think of are Eggleston, Young, and Vail, though I dunno if London really counts as a truly international marathon (in the sense of going somewhere out of your comfort zone, etc.... obviously it's a world-class event).

Americans can maybe get a little appearance money and have a shot at American-only prize $ at Chicago or New York or Houston but look where the B-list and C-list Kenyans run 2:07 / 2:08 / 2:09: Paris, Rotterdam, Dubai...and at those races, nary an elite American to be seen.

asdfasdfds wrote:

douglas burke wrote:

Also what is surprising is the absence of American elite runners.

For whatever reason, Americans HATE HATE HATE traveling abroad to try to run a fast marathon. The only people who really have done it in recent years that I can think of are Eggleston, Young, and Vail, though I dunno if London really counts as a truly international marathon (in the sense of going somewhere out of your comfort zone, etc.... obviously it's a world-class event).

Americans can maybe get a little appearance money and have a shot at American-only prize $ at Chicago or New York or Houston but look where the B-list and C-list Kenyans run 2:07 / 2:08 / 2:09: Paris, Rotterdam, Dubai...and at those races, nary an elite American to be seen.

For "whatever reason"? Are you serious? Americans are not going to get ANY appearance money to run overseas marathons. They will get appearance money to run US marathons, and they will have a decent shot at finishing in the prize money too. You don't have to be Lt. Columbo so solve this one.

That may be the case (I mean the corruption thing). But I also have heard that there is no apperance fee for Dubai, so most of the kenyan big guns are not interested because they rather shoot for London/Boston where they can get at least a good appearance fee even if they fail to do well in the race. I think that also is a good reason why we have seen new guys wining it the last few years. Haile was the only exception to that, but he never did well during any spring marathon due to his allergy (I think he tried London three times, 3rd place first time..DNF once, and I think the other one was a rather bad finish as well, don't remember the details), so Dubai was the best option for him: an almost guaranted 200K...

malmo wrote:

asdfasdfds wrote:

For whatever reason, Americans HATE HATE HATE traveling abroad

For "whatever reason"? Are you serious? Americans are not going to get ANY appearance money to run overseas marathons.

This, and the fact that jetlag is a b*tch when travelling east.

douglas burke wrote:

Also what is surprising is the absence of American elite runners.

I wasn't aware there were any American elite marathoners.

you trollin but Ill bite wrote:

I wasn't aware there were any American elite marathoners.

Ryan Hall - 2:04

Addis2Dubai wrote:

The recruiting process is corrupt. It's rumored that money is exchanged in the form of commission kickbacks between organizers, agents, and athletes ever since the days of Haile running. Not sure if that's actually the case, but there has been an obvious preference for Ethiopians for years now.

Ok but you didn't really answer the question. So the recruiting is corrupt, The question is why would they want more Ethiopians than Kenyans?

I was wondering if it was because there are a lot of Ethiopian workers in Dubai. This article said there were 100,000 a few years back -

- versus 40,000 Kenyans -

.

Do you know the answer.

One other idea I proposed as well is it appears there is a mini rain season in Kenya in November so maybe the roads aren't in good enough condition to get in 2:04 shape.

These are guesses on my part. But if the recruitment is corrupt and full of kickbacks, why do they want Ethiopians?

ethiopian wrote:

That may be the case (I mean the corruption thing). But I also have heard that there is no apperance fee for Dubai, so most of the kenyan big guns are not interested because they rather shoot for London/Boston where they can get at least a good appearance fee even if they fail to do well in the race. I think that also is a good reason why we have seen new guys wining it the last few years. Haile was the only exception to that, but he never did well during any spring marathon due to his allergy (I think he tried London three times, 3rd place first time..DNF once, and I think the other one was a rather bad finish as well, don't remember the details), so Dubai was the best option for him: an almost guaranted 200K...

This makes sense to me. If you go back through the past five winners, only one of them has come back to the race after winning it (Desisa won in '13, running it this year). They win the race, which grants them a big payday and enough legitimacy to command a nice appearance fee elsewhere. I still don't get why there aren't many second-tier Kenyans running it though.

Though I doubt there's no appearance fee entirely. Maybe most people don't get one, but I'd be shocked if they didn't pay Bekele anything to run this race.

6% of Kenyans are muslim, among them no high profile runners

33% of Ethiopians are muslim, among them many high profile runners

For whatever reason, Americans HATE HATE HATE traveling abroad to try to run a fast marathon. The only people who really have done it in recent years that I can think of are Eggleston, Young, and Vail, though I dunno if London really counts as a truly international marathon (in the sense of going somewhere out of your comfort zone, etc.... obviously it's a world-class event).

Americans can maybe get a little appearance money and have a shot at American-only prize $ at Chicago or New York or Houston but look where the B-list and C-list Kenyans run 2:07 / 2:08 / 2:09: Paris, Rotterdam, Dubai...and at those races, nary an elite American to be seen.[/quote]

Ever heard of this runner Shalane Flanagan? Anyway she's pretty good and went to Berlin this year to try to get the AR.

A flight from Addis Ababa to Dubai is 3 hr 45 min. A flight from New York City is 13+ hours. Why fly half way around the world when three of the biggest marathons are in the USA. If an American can't run 2:09 at Chicago or New York or Houston, it's not like they're gonna magically run that fast in Paris, Rotterdam, Dubai or anywhere.

LetsRun.com wrote:

On the world list last year, there were 10 Kenyans in the top 20 and 10 Ethiopians in the top 20. Generally, they're pretty even, though the very best men are all Kenyan.

The second sentence right here seems like the reason. They're mostly going for really fast guys that aren't quite the very best. With a lot of 10th-to-20th-best-in-the-world Ethiopians, they can create a scary good field for pretty cheap. They occasionally have some truly top-tier guys, but for the most part, getting a bunch of guys that were not quite in the top 10 last year, but close, insures that they'll produce a couple top-10 performances for this year on this fast of a course.

For whatever reason, Americans HATE HATE HATE traveling abroad to try to run a fast marathon. The only people who really have done it in recent years that I can think of are Eggleston, Young, and Vail, though I dunno if London really counts as a truly international marathon (in the sense of going somewhere out of your comfort zone, etc.... obviously it's a world-class event).

Americans can maybe get a little appearance money and have a shot at American-only prize $ at Chicago or New York or Houston but look where the B-list and C-list Kenyans run 2:07 / 2:08 / 2:09: Paris, Rotterdam, Dubai...and at those races, nary an elite American to be seen.

It's true.

Americans as a nationality are very poorly traveled compared to the rest of the world and it's reflected in their marathoners' decisions.

You see Canadian guys like Wykes, Watson, Coolsaet chasing and getting PRs in fast European races, Fukuoka and others.

I think one other reason might be that Ethiopians seem to run more marathons than Kenyans, and are more willing to sneak Dubai in before a spring marathon. If you think you can run 3 marathons in a year, Dubai is the obvious 3rd international marathon to sneak in. Not sure how many Kenyans run more than 2 marathons a year:in 2013, Desisa ran Dubai, Boston, and World ChampionshipsLast year Mekonnen ran Dubai, Boston, and FrankfurtBekele and Kebede both running >2 per year at this rate, tooWorth noting that the last three winners were Ethiopians who were still making their names in the sport -- doing well in January pumps up earnings potential for the rest of the year.

I think the same can be said about Houston marathon. And as someone said, it most likely has something to do with behind the scenes agreements between race directors, agents and managers. Dubai marathon is mostly used by agent's/managers who handle Ethiopian athletes to debut most of their athletes.