Why are Kenyans so fast?

Because they are from Kenya.

Kenyans have not even scraped the surface of their potential

all they are doing is having more quality runners training because of more $$$ & doing more intense roadwork than 20 or 30 or 40y ago, nothing more

their training apart from this is beyond primitive

- vivian cheruyiot ran 29'32 !! for silver & won 5k gold in rio & canova said she has never done 1 nanosecond of weight-training in her life !!!

- Korir had a ?45-high pb last year, got to texas & started doing lot of weights & ran a 43.34 !!! relay whilst primarily training for 800 !!!

canova himself stated if he had mo's camp access he coud have handful of 3'25 guys

if/whenever the Kenyans do adopt proper western training with dedicated weights coaching & some sprint coaches which are virtually non-existent currently, or just call it mo's camp, right now you woud see NRs of

~ 9.80

~ 19.50

~ 43.00 - 43.25

~ 1'39.50 - 1'39.75

~ 3'24.50 - 3'25.00

~ 7'15 - 7'16

~ 12'29 - 12'31

~ 25'50 - 25'55

~ 57'00 - 57'15

~ 2"01'00 - 2"1'30

😂😂😂😂😂😂

letsrunnnz wrote:

They arent particularly fast its just that everyone else has slowed down

The truth. When you take out the EPO improvements, compared to the 80's times today aren't much faster than what you would expect with 30 years better tracks, nutrition sense, training knowledge, footwear etc

African times kept progressing, whereas whitey stagnated or even slowed down.

Take the 1500m rankings from last year. Top 10 list is dominated by Kenyans and North Africans, but the times are not spectacular. Just two runners under 3:31 and the fastest time by Kiprop scarcely faster than the times Cram, Aouita, Coe were running 32 years ago. Now white athlete under 3:32.

Many here agree that Cram, Ovett, Coe could have been running sub 3:29 with better pacing, more competition etc back in the 80s. Put them on the tracks of today running against these Kenyans with a couple of years of insight into improved training methods etc and you'd expect them to be running 3:26 or even faster.

In 1985, two Spanish runners recorded faster 1500m times than the fastest white man in 2016. Gonzalez ran 3:30.92 in 85 and Ryan Gregson ran 3:32.13 in 2016, over 1 second slower and over 2 seconds slower than the fastest white guy in 85 (Cram).

Sydney Maree, a black South African born American ran 3:29.77 in 1985. That would have ranked him third in 2016.

https://www.iaaf.org/records/toplists/middlelong/1500-metres/outdoor/men/senior/2016

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_in_athletics_

(track_and_field)#1.2C500_metres

Times could have been a lot faster in the 70's and 80's too if it weren't for the fact that nearly all the greats of that period suffered illness, injury, or bad luck (even death in the case of Ivo Van Damme) or loss of motivation when still young and in their prime or even before their prime.

Jim Ryun, Dave Wottle, Ivo Van Damme, Juantoreno, Ovett, Coe, Cram, Walker.AND non-white athletes such as Cruz, Rono etc

Compare to the last 20 years when elite African athletes somehow have the ability to attempt fast times twice a week all season, every season. Somebody like Coe had maybe two races a season to set a very fast time at 1500m. If the pacing was off (as it usually was for him) or the conditions not right, it was a case of coming back the next year and trying again. Unfortunately, he only had 3 or 4 really peak years which means about 10 1500m races potential WRs (remember him and Ovett et al were running 800, 1000, Mile as well regularly). I guess a top Kenyan today has about 10 chances to record a fast 1500m each season. That's about as much as Coe, Cram, Ovett had in their entire careers!

no

a joke

what is this epo nonsense ???

you do realise they test for this OOC ???

30y ago there was NO OOC testing & you coud take all the steroids, growth hormone, blood tranfusions in training & never ever tested !!!

please show how this applies to Kenyans today ???

where are all these super high tech facilities in Iten ???

i understand you know nothing of women's running, but this run is generally considered greatest distance track run by a european woman in modern times

Vivian ran nearly 30s faster OFF NO WEIGHT TRAINING !!!

how much faster do you think she wouda been if she had ???

no

that was just becoming pro sport & africans participating more & training harder but with no ancillaries such as weights for the Kenyans

do you understand any aspect of modern track ???

the win is paramount !!!

for diamond league it is all about winning

times matter no more unless Kenyan has so much $$$ already that risk of blowing up in diamond league race doesn't matter

no

ovett said he was capable of 3'27+ & i agree he couda just dipped into 3'27s

certainly in '78 or in '81 he had 3'27+ if fully rested a committed to an offered, smooth 2'32+ at bell

cram worth a 3'28-flat in his mile WR

coe worth a 3'29-low at his best

is this a joke ???

iaaf have had 65% energy return limit for decades

elite meeting tracks today no quicker than elite meeting tracks in '70s/'80s

what improved training ???

show me guaranteed schedule to produce 1'42 or 3'28 for specimen with ideal genes ???

no

only hicham showed that over 1500 & lesser extent morceli

were you not avidly watching 25y ago ???

Kip & Big-Man did for 800 in best years

no

he ran mile WR twice in '81 along with a near 1500 record off 53-high split

he also ran 1k wr which couda been 1500 shot if he had switched

at least 4 times he couda run wr

you clearly weren't following track with lotta experience back then

coe had 4 or 5 times/year he was in shape to attempt 1500wr in '79 - '81 but tried other events or ran sparingly in '80 aiming for moscow

plenty of chances

no

try 15 - 20

is this a joke ???

diamond league is all about winning to earn $$$

they try 2 possibly 3 times/year at most for a fast time

is this a joke ???

coe had 5 good years between '78 - '87 to attempt 1500wr & that doesn't include '78 where he mighta dipped into 3'32s if he tried it

I was referring to the EPO improvements in the 90s, although I've no doubt many of the Kenyans still microdose or full dose for periods given the lack of testing they are subjected to for much of the year.

Of course tracks and footwear are faster these days. Not by much but all these things add up to an extra second or two, and the fact is the top Kenyans of today are barely a second faster than the best 40 year ago. You're the guy who claims that you should add 2 seconds a lap for running on cinder and another second a lap if the sun was out and the runner's name was Jim Ryun. Is this a joke???

You and the other black supremacists here have a deeply colonial and patronizing attitudes towards 21st century Africa. Maybe you should visit Kenya and walk through the ultra-modern Nairobi shopping centers selling luxury brands, the skyscrapers etc. Kenyans don't all live in villages and mud huts anymore you know.

If Kenyans were still winning on 'untapped talent' and minimal training as you and another reader claims, you would have the occasional individual who won scholarships to the USA etc or benefited from the best coaching that would be running superhuman times (again, leaving aside the EPO years, no Kenyan has). Rushida barely breaking 1:40 decades after Coe was slicing half-seconds off the WR and getting to down to sub 1:41 himself if he hadn't been stopped by ill-health in his peak? Kiprop running 3:26 was a brilliant time, but it's still barely more than you yourself admit Ovett and Cram (and Coe if you weren't such an ass) could run 40 years ago. Two Kenyans ran 3:28 this year, wow. So we've progressed maybe 1/4 second a lap after 40 years, despite the emergence of millions of supposedly genetically superior Kenyans?

@Calculo - btw, the point I was making was most of the top runners in the 70's and 80's ran both 800m and 1500m, while most of the Kenyans these days are specialists. They also used to run the 1000m and obviously the Mile, which had far more meaning and prestige back then.

Coe etc had far fewer chances to run super fast times than today's athletes and you know it. Coe and Ovett were also forced to run in crappy pointless GB VS Bulgaria etc meets 2 or 3 times a season.

All the diamond league races are paced and invariably fast. Quite often in the 80's the top guys wouldn't even bother chasing the pacemaker (often because the pacing was so bad), given rise to infamous moments such as Ovett being beaten by one.