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Kenya Diary: No Team Camp Visit
I’m in Nairobi, and not at the Kenyan national cross country team training
camp near Embu, on the slopes of Mt. Kenya, about two hours north of the capital
city. I’ve flown halfway around the world, but I can’t get up the
road to see the team camp.
It’s closed. Athletics Kenya doesn’t want any distractions as the
six teams prepare for the 2004 World Cross Country Championships in Brussels
on March 20-21. I’ve tried. Lord, I’ve tried. I’ve made repeated
visits to the AK headquarters to plead my case that all I want to do is observe,
take some photos, and talk to a few people about how good the Kenyan team camp
system is. No dice.
I entertain a rash notion of just heading up there and trying to talk my way
in, but I’m reminded of something I read a few days ago.
In the February 27 edition of the East African Standard, there is
a small article that has Athletics Kenya officials warning an Italian agent
against intruding on the camp—with threats of deportation if he doesn’t
comply. With my wife and daughter traveling in Kenya with me, I don’t
want to be deported and leave them here without me.
In my visits to see AK General Secretary David Okeyo, he says he has also refused
a BBC filming crew access to the camp. There will be no exception made for me.
Okeyo says that I can, however, phone head coach Patrick Sang, the 1992 Olympics
steeplechase silver medalist, once I’ve phoned team manager Michael Rotich
to say that I will be calling Coach Sang. The squad is training at Kigari Teachers’
College, and just last Sunday cut their numbers from nearly 60 athletes to 36.
Each team (men’s 4k, 12k, junior, and women’s 4k, 8, and junior)
can enter six athletes in the world meet, but 8-10 were sent to camp for each
team to make the training tougher. In a new twist this year, AK has named a
separate coach for each team, and all coaches work under Head Coach Sang. Peter
Mathu coaches the men’s 12k squad, James Kibet the men’s 4k squad,
Peninah Talam the women’s 8k squad, and Joseph Chelimo the women’s
8k squad, and Thomas Mukhwana and Andrew Nabugwesa head the junior men and women.
Considering my previous posts, I suppose I must offer readers a comparison
between phone interviews in the U.S. and Kenya. There’s no difference.
You call, someone talks, you try to get some good quotes and information. It’s
just not as good as visiting in person and getting more atmosphere.
The team travels to Brussels late on March 17, arriving in Europe on the morning
of March 18. Races are on March 21 and 22.
Before the phone interviews, I was able to speak to some people in person in
Nairobi at Riadha House, the Athletics Kenya headquarters.
Mike Kosgei, National Coach of Kenya
I have had made the acquaintance of Mike Kosgei, the AK national coach since
1985, while waiting to see Okeyo. Kosgei started the concept of a Kenyan national
team camp in the mid-80s, and is happy to talk about anything and everything
related to running—in Kenya and the world. Kosgei was left off of the
coaching staff for this year’s team, but isn’t bitter about it.
He wishes the team well. While the national team trains two hours away, the
national coach sits in his office in the AK headquarters in Nairobi. I ask him
about the origin of the national team camp.
“It started in 1985, when I picked the cross country team for Lisbon.
What happened was Kenya used to invite athletes (who were based in) America,
and from all over the place. I remember Musyoki was supposed to run in Lisbon,
but he came to Madrid and could not make the connection, so he missed the team.
He could not run. So I saw a problem.
“The Ethiopians beat us (in 1985) because they came together as a team.
So I said, ‘I have to train the team together.’ There is no need
for somebody to finish number one, number 50, and 100. That cannot make a team.
So they have to be together. That means they have to have almost equal strength.
Also, I saw that cross country runners need to assist each other when they are
running—not to leave someone behind, you know. I think (the team camp
concept) was successful. We went to Neuchatel, Switzerland (for the 1986 World
XC Champs), and started the race. The Kenyans who were there knew the Ethiopians.
In fact, the Ethiopian (Abebe Mekonnen) came and passed (5-time World XC Champ
John) Ngugi with about a kilometer to go. I saw Ngugi, and I yelled to Ngugi.
Later, Ngugi said he had a sideache. When he heard my voice, he said the sideache
went away and he won the race—because we had been together in camp. He
knows that is the voice of the coach, and when the coach is yelling like that,
he is saying, ‘go.’
“That is how the athletes build together. It is a strange thing to call
someone from Eldoret, another one from Nakuru, and then you meet at the airport
and you say you are going to the championship. That is cheating.”
Kirk Reynolds: That’s the American way.
“Yeah, the Americans must change. If you want to get something, you have
to sacrifice. If you rally together, it keeps the understanding of the athletes.
If three athletes are going to later run the 10,000m together, and they have
been training together, they know who is strong at what point, and who is doing
what at what point. So when you tell a runner, ‘you take the lead for
the first 2k,’ he knows, ‘Yes, I know. I can assist.’ What
is the need for you to be behind? If you cannot lead at the end, and you are
going to remain, why don’t you do something to assist the team!?!
“Those are the negotiations I do with the team. The Kenyans call it a
Memorandum of Understanding. When we were running the 10,000m in Canada (Edmonton’s
2001 World Track Championships), with Paul Kosgei and (John Cheruiyot) Korir,
and Charles Kamathi, Korir had carried the first 5k, and the next 5k was Paul
Kosgei. Kamathi had to remain and wait for Geb because I knew he (Geb) was going
to kick at 600m, 500m, or 400m. So Kamathi was there. Geb did not kick at 600m,
and I told Paul Kosgei, who was doing the last 5k, if he’s not going to
kick at 600m, then you kick at 500m, so that he will think you are trying to
win. And Kamathi was to stay close, 4 meters, until 200m, then go! He was there
all the time, but watching! So, why are we doing that? Because Kamathi was the
national champion. You give the national champion the opportunity, okay?”
Final Edmonton 10k results courtesy of Sieg Lindstrom, Track & Field
News:
1. 27:53.25 Charles Kamathi (Ken), Closing splits: 13.1, 26.4, 55.6, 2:01.9,
3:08.2, 4:13.2. Halves: 14:15.6/13:37.7.
2. 27:53.97 Assefa Mezegebu (Eth)
3. 27:54.41 Haile Gebrselassie (Eth)
4. 27:55.24 Yibeltal Admassu (Eth)
5. 27:56.07 Fabián Roncero (Spa)
6. 27:56.58 José Rios (Spa)
7. 27:57.56 Paul Kosgei (Ken)
8. 27:58.06 John Cheruiyot Korir (Ken)
KR: So is the goal a Kenyan jersey first, or a particular individual?
“At the end of the day, it’s going to be an individual—but
being assisted. There is no need for the three Kenyans to fight, and have all
of them losing. It is better to assist one to win, than losing—all of
them.
“So that is the logic behind it. To harmonize, to understand each other,
make the athletes to love each other. That is what I’m telling you about
a Memorandum of Understanding. Kenyans have been running as a team. Long distance
running is psychological, it’s torturing. It’s not like the 100m,
where (smacks the desk) you go, and you need only your lane. In distances, you
need your friends. Which is why, when you see something like this, you say,
‘Aah, that is the Kenyan way!’
“This long distance running country of Kenya, like Morocco, like America,
like Finland, where there used to be great runners, you know, they have their
tradition. Like Brazil, they have a good tradition of football (soccer), yes?
So this is what we have to maintain. When people say they have to have tactics
like the Kenyans, I don’t think it comes overnight.”
KR: So how do you foster that during the four weeks of the team camp?
“That is what develops your team. You stay for one month together, so
you learn. You are together when you are doing the workouts, when you are eating,
when you are together. Every workout you do is focused. And we learn, ‘Okay,
it is you and you and you.’ And then we sit as a team and discuss the
players, ‘Okay, you and you are going to be the car—you are guarding
him.’ And we don’t want this known until after the finish line.
So we tell them, ‘You sit as the passenger, you sit as the driver,’
but when the passenger says, ‘Okay! It is me now!’ Then he’s
still fresh, and the game starts.”
KR: On the track, in the Olympics or Worlds, you get three per event. In
cross country you get six. Any difference in tactics?
“In cross country you have four to score, so you have two to lose.”
KR: Thanks, Coach.
David Okeyo, General Secretary of Athletics Kenya
After David Okeyo has given his final denial for me to visit, I ask him about
the Kenyan team camp from his perspective.
“Putting them in the camp lets them know one another. They live like
brothers and sisters. With our selection, you may get people from the Western
part of Kenya who have never been to Nairobi before. Another one may come from
Coast Province, another one from Nyanza Province. And you bring them together
in the camp. There they learn one another, know one another, they become friends.
That makes them come together as a team, and that’s actually the main
purpose for having this camp. There is no way you can do it differently. If
you want them to win, you must train as a team. It’s just like football.”
KR: We don’t do it this way in the U.S.
The U.S. is very large. One state is just as big as Kenya! I think they are
trying. I must say America is doing very well. In the last cross country (world
championships), I think the women got third. It was fantastic.
“Sports need competition. If the first runner is 20m away from the other
runners, you just don’t enjoy the race. But if the bunch is just working
together at the end, you are enjoying the race.”
From Okeyo, I get phone numbers for the manager and head coach at the national
team camp and give them a call. Standing near manager Michael Rotich is two-time
world 4k champ Edith Masai, who took third in the national championships nearly
one month ago in Nairobi. She’ll face Paula Radcliffe, among other notables,
in just over a week. She agrees to a short interview.
Edith Masai, two-time World 4k Champion
“The camp is not bad. It’s very nice! I’m training very well
here in Kigari. We have new coaches, and we are seeing improvements. Of course
now we are not going to say anything (about team tactics or team goals)! Sometimes
we are training together, and sometimes it’s 8k alone and 4k alone, and
junior women alone. The food is very nice, the weather is very nice. I think
it is high altitude here.
KR: How much do you think about being a runner on the well-known Kenyan
team, or being a two-time defending world champ?
“No, there is no pressure here.”
KR: At the national meet, David Okeyo said he wanted Kenya to win all six
team title, plus all six individual titles.
“So maybe we hope so. Maybe we can get all gold medals, but I’m
not sure. So maybe we put it in God’s prayers. We are human beings, so
you never know. In Brussels there is a lot of mud, so you never know. We are
supporting the men, and sometimes the men are supporting the ladies, so we have
good morale there.”
KR: You’re a two-time world champ, but took third at Nationals. How
was that race?
“Now I am training very well. I’m doing a lot of speed work, but
at that time I didn’t have speed work. Now, here, it is very nice.”
Patrick Sang, 2004 Kenyan National Cross Country Team Head Coach
I connect with Patrick Sang, the head coach of the 2004 Kenyan National Cross
Country Team, on his cell phone just after dinner at the team camp.
KR: How is the camp going?
“The training is going on very well. This is the fourth week, and up
to last Sunday we had almost 60 athletes, and now we are 36 athletes in total.
So we are finalizing our preparations for World Cross.
“On a normal day we get up at 6 o’clock. We meet at a common point—usually
at the gate of the place we are staying—and each category (4k, 12k, junior
men, 4k, 8k, junior women) would leave with their coach. We have six coaches
plus me, and every category has a different training program. But on the days
when we do serious training, we do two workouts: one at 6 o’clock, and
one at 9 o’clock. So that is a standard training program.
KR: Tell me about the accommodations at Kigari Teachers’ College.
“The college is on (in session) at the moment. They have facilitated
some rooms that are usually used by people who are visiting. We have a special
dining place three times a day for our people, and we have meals separate from
everybody else. We have meals, actually, that are a diet that is suitable for
athletes active in sport.
“When you talk about it being a college setting, it sounds like we are
living like students. But actually we are living well. Each athlete has his
or her own cube, or room. It’s a decent place to stay.”
KR: Do groups ever get to train together? For example, do the women’s
4k and 8k groups ever run together?
“When they are doing specific training programs for that particular event,
they are always separate. But when they are going for recovery runs, or easy
runs, they go together. But not the juniors. The same with men, 4k and 12k.
When we go to the specific event, each group does their own specific training
program. The 4k is more speed-oriented than the 12k men or 8k women. And the
juniors, of course, are in between, and the age element is there, also.”
KR: Who made the decisions on who made the actual team of six to travel
to Brussels?
“It was actually a consultation among the coaches. Every day we were
there, each coach would assess their own category and give a report on a daily
basis. And, of course, coming into the camp, we had the history of every athlete,
what they had done before, and what they did at Nationals (in early February).
Coming to the camp had a lot of bearing as to who makes the top six, but it’s
not actually just what they do at the camp.
KR: Two women who didn’t place at Nationals were named to the team.
Why?
“(Grady Chemweno, Jr. Women’s 6k) could not compete at the Nationals
because she had some problems at home. I think she lost a family member. But
going by the history, she was the material we were looking for to have a good
team to go and represent the country. That’s why she was brought into
the camp. (8k team member Fridah) Domongole had an ailment at Nationals, so
she didn’t do very well. But going by what she had done before was the
consideration to bring her to the camp.”
KR: And for the men it was pretty much the top six at Nationals, except
for Moses Kigen (6th in the 4k, but not picked to the final team).
“Moses Kigen was training very well, but unfortunately he had a small
back problem. And considering the fact that he was going to run the four kilometer
distance, that’s not conducive to his back. That’s why he was kept
off the team. All the people who came here came on the strength of their own.
They’re real good athletes in their own right. What they had done before
really made them to be considered for camp. Nothing really changed from what
you saw at the Nationals.”
KR: What are the goals for Brussels?
“Of course, God willing, we would like to win all the titles. You know,
when you go to a competition, you have other countries also coming with goals
to win everything. But our goal, since we have a history of doing very well
before, is to maintain that history. Besides the team titles, we would like
to come back with a couple—if not all—the individual titles. That
is the ultimate goal for going to the World Championships.”
KR: How has coaching been for you in your first national role?
“Actually, it’s not really been tough for me because I’ve
coached some top athletes before taking this assignment. So I have the experience
in coaching, but handling the several coaches under me has been a different
challenge, especially with all these people coming from different backgrounds.
We have coaches from prisons, from the military, and from schools. But it’s
a good experience for me. The fact that I’m the youngest of all of them—and
being their leader—seeing them give me the respect makes my work easier.
They are well-trained coaches. They’ve gone through the normal training
programs we have here in the country for long distance coaching. That’s
why we could assign each category with confidence. And they’ve done a
good job.”
KR: I’m coming from the U.S., and now I’m seeing the Kenyan
system of having a camp for four weeks compared to the U.S., where there is
no camp for runners to run and train together.
“Our system works well because, geographically, it’s not possible
to have people train in different points and have people monitor them. In America,
most of the athletes have individual coaches, so that’s how they can manage
to be apart from a team and train individually. Here in Kenya, we don’t
have so many athletes having individual coaches. So having specialized coaching
here in a camp really helps polish that athlete so that they can do better.
Of course, in the process, you field a good team spirit because—even though
you work as a team—you encourage the individual to shine. You enhance
the chance for an individual title, but at the same time you bring the level
of everybody to a higher level. That’s also the advantage for having people
train together for a certain period of time.
“In our country, if you look at the juniors for example, if everybody
was training in different areas, bringing them together at the last minute would
be a complete nightmare. It’s also ideal because when you are dealing
with juniors, documents (like visas and passports) are easily obtained in developed
countries like America. Sometimes it’s a little bit of a complication
here. When you have them all together, it’s easier for one person to run
up and down to get documentations for these people. Besides the team spirit,
we also have the logistical problems that you can easily overcome (in the U.S.).
“And most of these people come from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially
when they are coming for the first time to the national team. When new juniors
come, you have adequate medical attention, officials, doctors, what have you.
And the diet, of course, is proper. So those are additional advantages of being
a part of an organization.”
KR: Good luck in Brussels. I’ll see you there.
“Thank you. Root for us.”
World Cross Country Championships – Schedule
Saturday, March 20, 2004
W Junior 6k
M Senior 4k
W Senior 8k
Sunday, March 21, 2004
M Junior 8k
W Senior 4k
M Senior 12k
Kenya’s team for the 2004 World Cross Country Championships:
Men’s 4k squad: Abraham Chebii, John Kibowen, Kiplimo Muneria, Boniface
Songok, Isaac Songok, Eliud Kirui.
Men’s 12k squad: Eliud Kipchoge, John Korir, Wilberforce Talel, Richard
Limo, Simon Kiprop, Charles Kamathi.
Men’s Junior 8k squad: Barnabas Kosgei, Hosea Macharinyang, Ronald Kipchumba,
Ernest Meli, Moses Masai, George Kirwa.
Women’s 4k squad: Beatrice Jepchumba, Jane Gakunyi, Edith Masai, Peninah
Jepchumba, Isabella Ochichi, Vivian Cheruiyot.
Women’s 8k squad: Alice Timbilil, Sally Barsosio, Irene Kwambai, Eunice
Jepkorir, Jane Ngotho, Fridah Domongole.
Women’s Junior 6k squad: Chemutai Rionotukei, Jebichi Yator, Emmy Chepkurui,
Zeddy Cheboi, Nelly Jepkurui, Grady Chemweno.
Next: Kenya history at the World Cross Country Championships
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