How Kiplagat, Kipchoge Wars Denied Kenya Olympics Glory

Ezekiel Kemboi after winning the 3,000m steeplechase race at the London Olympics.

BY M’MBOLO BULEMI AND KEN NATO
SATURDAY, 29 DECEMBER, 2012

How Kiplagat, Kipchoge Wars Denied Kenya Olympics Glory

When the London Olympics fever hit Kenya early this year, there was hope that the country’s world class athletes would surpass their medal collection at the Beijing Games. Most of the runners had posted fast times in Samsung Diamond League races prior to the Olympics and there was hope that they would do well in London. But even before the June 23 national athletics trials in Nairobi, the National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOCK) and Athletics Kenya (AK) were already on a collision course over training and selection venues. Major controversies hit Kenya’s preparations.

First, AK entered a deal with sportswear maker Nike to have the selection of the men’s 5,000m and 10,000m held at the June 2 Pre Fontaine Classic at Oregon, in the USA. Stakeholders, including the then minister for Sports Paul Otuoma opposed the move saying Kenya “would be selling out her dignity by having trials for such an important championship held in another country.” “Being an athletics powerhouse, the world should instead come to Nairobi and watch us select our team and not the other way round,”said Otuoma.

Criticism from retired athletes notably former world marathon record holder Paul Tergat and former world 10000m title holder and Moses Tanui, also opposed AK’s Pre Fontaine Trials plan. AK chairman Isaiah Kiplaglat later announced that the number of the athletes to the Oregon trials had been scaled down adding only the 10,000m men would be selected in the US. But even with that, there were still murmurs over the plan to hold trials at the American Samsung Diamond League event.

Although proponents of the Oregon trials argued that they had taken the move to break the 10, 000m jinx since Naftali Temu won gold in the event in 1968 at the Mexico Olympics, the three Kenyans in the event, Bedan Karoki, Moses Maasai and Wilson Kiprop, flopped in London as Briton Mo Farah took honours. Even before the Oregon trials saga could settle, it emerged that NOCK had entered into another deal with Bristol University in the UK, to have Kenya’s Olympics squad train at the institution prior to the games.

This idea was equally opposed by all including the athletes themselves. And since NOCK chairman Kipchoge Keino, who was fronting the agenda could not justify the Bristol training when the whole world was flocking Kenya to take advantage of the high altitude training, it would later turn out that only sprinters, field events athletes, a swimmer, two boxers and a weightlifter would travel to Bristol. But even then, it was surprising that short distance athletes would be accompanied to Bristol by long distance coaches, not mentioning the heavy delegation of officials who had no roles.

The two scenarios formed the basis for supremacy wars between AK and NOCK and which is believed to have been among reasons for Team Kenya’s dismal show in London. It was latter revealed that AK had its own plans to send athletes to another camp in England. However, NOCK and the government, who were funding the Olympics preparations and participation, did not approve it. Most elite athletes declined to train in Bristol, citing its low altitude as opposed to the advantageous high altitude in Kenya.

In mitigation for Kenya’s undesirable results in London, athletics head coach, Julius Kirwa, would accuse the legendary Kipchoge Keino of having cursed the athletes after they rejected his pre- Olympics camp in Bristol. Kiplagat and coach Kirwa on one side and Kipchoge on the other, their differences to London as confusion rocked the Kenyan camp. Athletics deputy team manager Bernard Njoga was also expelled after he reportedly influenced athletes to boycott the State House flag presentation by President Kibaki.

Personal trainers Again, Government officials flooded Kenya’s Olympics Village without any particular roles while some key personnel such as personal trainers and a physiotherapist conversant with the team were locked out. Some of the athletes who had been tipped to win gold in London but fell short included triple world champion Vivian Cheruiyot, who was hot favourite to bag women’s 5,000m and 10,000m, the same way she had done at the IAAF world championships in South Korea in September last year. Cheruiyot’s performance was affected when her husband, who is also her coach, was kicked out of the camp. Others who failed to impress