High altitude and big dreams help to hone world champions

Elgeyo-Marakwet is the Mecca of world long distance runners.

More than 5,000 athletes are on the roads every morning and evening in this county of hills and valleys.

They range from those at the pinnacle of their careers to greenhorns dreaming of hitting the jackpot in the future.

Athletes from all walks of life and all corners of the world come here to discover the secret to success. And many go on to be champions.

The county has produced some of the world’s greatest athletes.

Ahead of this year’s Olympic games in London, scores of athletes from Sweden, Britain, The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and South Africa are already camping in the county.

Indeed, sports tourism is set to be one of the biggest revenue earners for the county.

The county’s combination of high and low altitude gives athletes a unique advantage.

Brother Colm O’ Connell, an athletics coach at St. Patrick’s Iten, a school that has played a key role in nurturing athletes, said high altitude regions had a slight advantage because the air was thinner and the body became more efficient at consuming oxygen.

“Physiologically, people born in high altitude areas take in less oxygen leading to development of more red blood cells, forcing the body to make small adaptations. Red blood cells help to cope with a situation where extra oxygen is required at sea level,” said Bro Colm, who has been training athletes at St Patrick’s since 1976.

The Irish lay missionary went on: “That is why athletes from low altitude areas prefer to live in Iten, but rain in low altitudes. In this case, they obey the athletics science theory ‘live high, train low’. So, my athletes live in Iten, but train down the valley at Tambach Teachers’ College, which is at low altitude.”

Iten lies at 8,000 feet (2,400m) above sea level.

The top stars are train at the world-famed High Altitude Training Centre in Iten owned by Lorna Kiplagat, a daughter of the county who became a Dutch national.

They include British world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe, former world junior 1,500m champion Stephanie Twell, 5,000m runner Mo Farah and world and Olympic champions Mbulaeni Mulaudzi of South Africa and Ethiopia’s Derartu Tulu.

World record holders David Rudisha (800m), Saif Saaed Shaheen, formerly Stephen Cherono (3,000m steeplechase), Mary Keitany (21km), Lorna Kiplagat (20km), Moses Mosop (25km and 30km) all train in Iten.

The foreign athletes train just metres away from the homes of marathon greats Florence Kiplagat, the 2011 Berlin winner, London Marathon conqueror Mary Keitany and world marathon champions Ednah Kiplagat and Abel Kirui as well as Frankfurt marathon titleholder Wilson Kipsang.

Sylvia and Hilda Kibet, Lorna Kiplagat and Boaz Lalang come from Top Hill at the far end. On the same gradient is Daegu marathon silver medalist Vincent Kipruto then 2004 Boston Marathon winner Timothy Cherigat at Nyaru Escarpment.

Vivian Cheruiyot and Edina Kiplagat grew up a stone’s throw from the escarpment, which also helped to nurture the careers of three-time world 3,000m steeplechase champions Moses Kiptanui and Ezekiel Kemboi, Sharon Cherop, Wilson Chebet and Wilson Kipsang.

One village has claimed almost all the glory in the 3,000 metres steeplechase.

And they owe some of their success to leaping over gates and across streams to escape cattle raiders, a top coach has revealed.

Komora village boasts the highest number of Olympic, World, Commonwealth and Africa champions in the race’s history.

Former world record holder and three-time world champion Moses Kiptanui is a leading star from the area as are Reuben Kosgei, Brimin Kipruto and Ezekiel Kemboi who are among the few athletes who have won both Olympic and World titles.

Kiptanui and Kenyan-turned-Qatari Shaheen Saif Saaeed – formerly Stephen Cherono – trained by leaping over desks or hurdles made of twigs.

World and Olympic champion Brimin Kipruto and former Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi, All-Africa record holder Ruth Bosibori and Kenya’s first World Junior champion Gladys Kemboi were in Kenya’s team to the 2009 Berlin world championships.

Kemboi and Kipruto led a 1-2 sweep for Kenya at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, last September.

Steeplechase coach Boniface Tiren, who has trained most of the runners at Kapcherop Athletics Club near Komora, said the terrain and the high altitude have been helpful.

“We have been recruiting steeplechasers right from the grassroots level during the December holidays. And since steeplechase is a technical event, we found it wise to utilise the privileges within us that favour the race and ensure our athletes scale the heights of fame. There has not been a Kenyan national team without our steeplechasers and everybody wanted to run steeplechase here,” Mr Tiren said.

Most people living around the area are used to dashing for cover as a result of cattle raids, crossing numerous rivers on the hilly terrain as they also jump over their ladder-gates along the fences.

“My first race on a standardised barrier was when I ran at the provincials,” said Paul Chemase, the 1994 world junior 3,000m steeplechase champion.

“We could jump over fences, rivers all along to Kacheliba escaping cattle raiders. It was not easy but the experience actually hardened us and help us clear the barriers easily,” said Mr Tiren.

A teacher from Kamoi Primary School, he has helped many young athletes from Marakwet and identifies talented athletes from the area.

Many of the primary school pupils head to two secondary schools ­­­— St Patrick’s Iten and Sing’ore Girls — where they continue to hone their skills.

St Patrick’s games teacher, Mr Wesley Kibichii, said the school had lately faced a stiff challenge from other schools.

“Some of the top former athletes from St Patrick’s have graduated into coaching and have established training camps in their localities, utilising the skills they acquired from St. Patrick’s,” he explained.

At the 2004 Athens Olympics the Saints were well represented when 800m world champion and Kenyan-born-Dane Wilson Kipketer, plus Isaac Songok and former Athletics Kenya head coach Mike Kosgei carried their name into the world’s sporting showpiece.

Other top athletes from the school include Athletics Kenya (AK) national assistant secretary Ibrahim Hussein, coaches Joseph Tengelei and the late Joseph Chelimo, former sports commissioner Mike Boit and former assistant sports commissioner Ernest Keitany.

The athletics Saints of Iten appeared runaway favourites in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when steeplechaser Mathew Birir and 800m specialist Nickson Kiprotich won gold and silver medals. Ibrahim Hussein was the team captain. 

At the Seoul Olympics in 1988, US-based Peter Rono led the Saints’ pack to claim a gold medal in the 1,500m. 

Others in the team were the then three times Boston Marathon winner Ibrahim Hussein, the 400m sprints trio Tito Sawe, Jos Maritim and Joseph Saina and the 5,000m legend Charles Cheruiyot.

In the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Saints were there too with Cheruiyot’s brothers —Charles Cheruiyot and Kipkoech Cheruiyot, who are twins — winning gold in the 5,000m and 1,500m.

The school’s compound is well-adorned with commemorative trees bearing the names of elite Kenyan runners who studied there. 

The picture gallery inside the dinning hall shows all the records set by former Saints runners. 

Just five kilometres away is Kenya’s women’s athletes hothouse —–Sing’ore Girls High School.

It boasts a current crop of world beaters among them double world champion Vivian Cheruiyot, world 800m bronze medalist Janet Jepkosgei (known as the Eldoret Express) world 5,000m silver medalist Sylvia Kibet and 1,500m sensation Violah Kibiwott.  

Sing’ore Girls’ has been in the spotlight for more than 30 years, starting on its track to fame when Bro. Colm linked them with the Patrician Brothers, a Christian caucus based in Ireland offering missionary services.

The pioneer coach and principal sister Christine Harvarine and Bro Colm laid out the red carpet in 1970s and 1980s. 

Rose Thomson of Irong location in Keiyo North and 1,500m legend Saina Chirchir were the first runners from the school to make a mark at the international level.

In their footsteps ran Fridah Kiptala, a versatile 400m and 800m runner, who hit the limelight in the 1980s and is now a hepthathlete working with the Kenya Prisons Service.

Lydia Cheromei won the 1991 World Cross Country Junior Championship in Antwerp, becoming the first Kenyan woman to win gold at a world cross country championship.