Charles Nyende
26 April 2008
column
The longest and most gruelling Olympic athletic event is the marathon. It is one of the highlights at the Olympics that every athlete's dreams of winning. You see, a marathon is not just a race, it is the ultimate endurance test for the human body and mind. It's said running the marathon is akin to being touched by the gods. Anybody who has finished a marathon will tell you why.
This race is steeped in legend. The 1896 Athens Olympics (inaugural modern Olympics) marathon followed the route from Marathon to Athens by the Greek soldier Pheidippides to announce the victory over the Persians in 490 BC.
Legend has it that Pheidippides ran about 40 km after the battle had concluded and then gasped out "We have won" before dropping dead from exhaustion.
This may just be a Greek myth but the marathon has become a popular race held in hundreds of cities around the world every year.
Because it is run once every four years, the Olympic marathon invariably attracts the most international attention and creates its own legends.
Luxembourg's Michel Theato was a resident of France when he (I will be talking about men's marathon) won the 1900 Paris Olympics. He is said to have triumphed on a very hot day because he was a baker used to delivering hot croissants. He was actually a woodworker.
Korean Kee-Chung Sohn won the 1936 Berlin Marathon running for the Koreans but sadly, in Japanese colours because his country was occupied by Japan.
Abebe Bikila won the 1960 Rome Olympic marathon in a new world record time of 2 hours 15 minutes and 16 seconds (the first ever sub 2hr 20 minutes) running barefooted.
The Ethiopian, this time in shoes, retained his title in Tokyo four years later in a new world record, 2:12:11. He was the first man to win two consecutive Olympic marathon titles.
Bikila's running mate Mamo Waldo won in Mexico City in 1968 to ensure a third consecutive title for Ethiopia making it the only country to win three Olympic marathon titles in a row.
East German Waldemar Cierprinski took gold in 1976 and 1980 to become the second marathoner in history to win two Olympic gold medals.
In these bits and pieces of Olympic history though, there is no mention of a Kenyan, never mind that Kenya has absolutely dominated world marathon running over the last two decades.
Out of the top 100 all time best times in the world, 53 are owned by Kenyans. Kenyans possess six of the 10 best ever times in the world. Yet, the country's finest showing at the Olympic marathon to date remains Eric Wainaina's silver in Sydney 2000.
However, it seems just a matter of time before Kenya produces its own Olympic marathon winner. That is why every time the Kenyan marathon squad is named, ears are pricked because whoever is selected, stands on the brink of creating history by becoming the first Kenyan to win Olympic marathon gold.
This week, Athletic Kenya named the squad for the Beijing Olympics set for August. I couldn't have named a different team. It comprises Robert Cheruiyot, Martin Lel and Samuel Wanjiru. The expectations for gold are palpable. Cheruiyot is the World Marathon Majors champion, has won Boston four times, Chicago twice and Milan once.
Lel boasts three London Marathon titles, two from New York besides the fifth best time in history of 2:05:15.
Wanjiru has won Fukuoka and is the half marathon world record holder. If any of them wins, he can be considered on his way to becoming the greatest marathon runner of these times, and perhaps, of all times. Oh, these marathon legends.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 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.
