Chris Musumba And Mercy Gakii
5 August 2007
Nairobi — Local athletics coaches have to review the training programme in long distance races if Kenya wants to shrug off rivalry from Ethiopian and Eritrean runners in top international competitions.
Athletics coach David Kiplagat Kosgei believes Kenyan athletes are paying the price of pacing their opponents only to be left gasping in the last 200 metres, unable to counter the finishing kick from their rivals. Kosgei wants long distance athletes to change tact, by pulling out of the pack and opening up a gap early enough to claim the honours.
"It's important for us to change our training programme. What we used to do before has been perfected by our rivals and are now beating us without a major hustle. We must sit down with 5,000m and 10,000m athletes to discuss and understand where the problem is," said the coach.
Kosgei was speaking at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, where the national athletics team has pitched camp in preparation for the World Championship, which will be held in Osaka, Japan later this month. He, however, pointed out that the selected athletes had changed their attitude and showed improved discipline.
"Previously, it was a hustle to bring together elite athletes for national duty, but a new trend is quickly setting in among these senior runners and building a team will not take us long. We must tackle the challenges ahead of us together and plan on how to improve on our ranking," he said.
Kenya was ranked tenth overall in Helsinki, Finland in 2005, having secured only one gold medal, two silver and four bronze.
Now, Kosgei believes, is the right time for Kenyan athletes to stamp their authority starting from 800m to the 10,000m races. Kenya will send a squad of 38 athletes, made up of 28 track and 10 marathon runners.
"After a dismal show in Algiers in long distance, the pressure will be on these athletes to perform better and I believe we have the mental strength to sustain it," said the coach.
Athletics Kenya chairman Isaiah Kiplagat decried the dismal standards of coaching in the country and has put those in charge of the team on alert saying they were responsible for Kenya's drop in international competitions.
The association will call for a symposium in Naivasha in September to discuss the issue as well as come up with practical solutions to the problem.
Peter Nduhiu, the team's physiotherapist, said the athletes in camp did not have many complaints over their physical fitness but pointed out that they were bound to speak as they settle down in camp owing to the exhaustion after competing abroad, in national championships and the trials.
"Essentially, what you will find is complaints with muscles, joints and general fatigue that comes with intensive training and we expect other long time injuries cropping up because of the pounding the muscles will undergo," said Nduhiu.
Meanwhile, World Junior 3,000m champion Veronica Nyaruai is the latest inclusion in the Kenyan team to Osaka. Nyaruai joins world half marathon champion Samuel Wanjiru to bring the total number of track athletes to 27.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
