Coaching to blame for dismal show

Kenya’s two gold medals in the London Olympics came from Ezekiel Kemboi in the 3,000 metres steeplechase and David Rudisha in the 800m in which he also bettered his world record to emerge as one of the most successful athletes in this year’s Games.

Much was expected from the Kenyans in the distance events – especially both marathons, women's 10,000m and 5,000m, 800m and 1,500m – but they flopped, much to the chagrin of sports fans in the country who are now baying for the blood of some of the officials whom they accuse of mismanaging Team Kenya.

Even more painful for the Kenyans is that little-known Stephen Kiprotich snatched the marathon title from them in the final day to give Uganda its first Olympic gold in 40 years since the late John Akii-Bua won gold in the 400m hurdles at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

So what went wrong?

Moses Kiptanui, a former Kenyan international and the first man to run under eight minutes in the 3,000m steeplechase, attributes Kenya’s below-par showing to poor coaching which contributed to tactical blunders especially in the women’s 800m and 5,000m.

Julius Kirwa was head coach of Kenya’s athletics team in London.

“The results should be an eye opener for Athletics Kenya to overhaul the coaching team,’’ says Kiptanui. “These are people who don’t know athletics, and don’t even have their own coaching programmes. We have many coaches in Kenya, me included, who can handle the team but they have not been given a chance.”

Kiptanui’s sentiments are echoed by former Kenya head coach Mike Kosgei, who fails to understand how Vivian Cheruyiot lost the 5,000m gold for the silver.

Do not attend refresher courses

“This is just just poor tactics by the coaches. How can all of them remain behind throughout the race only for Vivian to catch up in the later stages,” he wondered. “What was the work of Sally Kipyego and Viola Kibiwott in the race?

“This is clearly lack of teamwork and poor tactics.”

Kosgei says most of Kenya’s coaches do not attend regular refresher courses to keep abreast with the latest coaching techniques and feels this might have resulted in some of the athletes over-training owing to little knowledge on the part of their coaches.

Kiptanui also says Pamela Jelimo would have retained her title but chose to kick at the wrong time, alerting her opponents early enough for them to catch up with her on the final straight.

Mismanagement, lack of incentives and lukewarm support from the government have also been cited as factors that contributed to Kenya’s lacklustre performance.

Interestingly, Kiptanui notes, no government official has come out to announce a reward for Rudisha after his earth-shaking performance. India’s boxing hero Mary Kom, in contrast, has been promised five million rupees (Sh7.6m), promotion in the police and two acres of land.