Boston Marathon & Rotterdam Marathon - Some Other Great Outings for Kenyan Marathoners

Hoping to continue what was great year in 2011, Kenyan marathoners go at it again this weekend. Starting with the Rotterdam Marathon in the Dutch city, the Kenyans will be looking to attain better times for what will surely be a tough year for those hoping to make it to the Olympic squad. The selection of this team is already giving Athletics Kenya officials headaches.

Kenyan runners in Rotterdam - www.iaaf.org

Moses Mosop will lead Kenya's onslaught and hope to earn bragging rights in the race which is slowly becoming a launching pad for Kenyan marathoners hoping to make an impact in the bigger and 'richer' (in terms of prize money) races.  Others include Sammy Kitwara, Stephen Kibet among others. The race takes place on Sunday 15th of April.
A day later on 16th April , marathoners streak through the streets of Boston in the Boston Marathon - one of the most pretigious marathon races in the world. This race has become a tradition for Kenyan runners and many names have been made in this US city. From the likes of Cosmas Ndeti, Moses Tanui, Ibrahim Hussein to most recent winners in Geoffrey Mutai & Robert 'Mwafrika' K. Cheruiyot, it attracts the creme de la creme of marathons across the world.
Geoffrey Mutai is leading Kenya's challenge as Robert K. Cheruiyot dropped out due to some injury concerns.  In the women's race, Caroline Kilel will be hoping to retain her title in Boston as they launched one of Kenya's best year's in marathon racing history to become world beaters in the World Athletics championships.

Wondering if any of these Kenyans will attempt the world record set last year by Patrick Makau to break mold into the Olympic Games team proper. In a week's time, the next marathon station moves to the UK in the prestigious London Marathon.

Patrick Makau rips Berlin & Marathon World Record too

After making his intent known last year at the Berlin Marathon, Patrick Makau came back yesterday and obliterated the field which included more fancied Haile Gebreselassie , smashing the world record in the process by a whole 21 seconds( finishing at 2hr 03 min 38secs).


We applaud his exploits and this shows the pedigree that Kenya has on the longest athletic event. Being one of the events on the World Marathon Majors (WMM), it will be even better if one of the Kenyans were to emulate last year's winner the late Samuel Wanjiru - fitting tribute to this great runner whose career was cut short earlier this year.
The current ranking for the WMM has Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai leading the pack with 55 points amassed from his win at Boston Marathon and 2nd place in last year's Berlin Marathon ( and also led Kenya at the IAAF World Cross-Country championships and won the Bogota Half-Marathon). There are 6 other Kenyans in the top 10 but the title for WMM Marathoner of the Year is clearly between Mutai and Makau.

NOTES:
While we applauded the winning of the race by the Kenyans in Berlin, it has become the norm for media-houses and print media to start shouting the prize money that the individuals shall collect. It is all good an informative but let's not shine too much spotlight on such trappings. We all know what happened with the Samuel Wanjiru. These sport personalities now become the focus of unwanted attention and fraudsters to boot.

Haile Gebreselassie's loss also shows the toll the road races usually have on many an athlete. It will be imperative for the authorities at Athletics Kenya to manage our talents to ensure that if we're to have track and road specialists; each sticks to their specialisation. Road-running is known to wreck havoc on the knees and ankles. Ask Paul Tergat, Charles Kamathi and now Haile Gebreselassie.

All the same, let's celebrate the win one more time!

Kenyan Marathoners to Retrace their steps ???

The last week saw the Kenyan and indeed the athletics world treated to some shocking news. The organisers of the Utrecht Marathon have decided to discourage Kenyan marathoners from participating by granting prize money of a measly € 100 (approx. $144). Compare this with the prize money of € 100,000 promised to the local Dutch runners winning the race.

Illustration courtesy of Jason Atwood

If there has ever been discrimination of any kind , this is an example right there! It should be condemned from the highest of places and wonder what the IAAF and Athletics Kenya have to say about this.
Given the domination of Kenyan athletes in major marathons across Europe with the country contributing at least 85-90% wins over any given year, this is a real disgrace to the very essence of a sport. If you cannot make a sport competitive by getting the athletes or participants to train harder, seek smarter ways to victory or even 'import talent', live with the fact that there will always be a winner who might not always tickle your fancy.
As for Kenyan marathoners and the athletics fraternity in Kenya, it seems your success has not always left the best of impressions in most race organisers in Europe and other parts of the world. The World Marathon Majors series starts this weekend with the first marathon on card being the London Marathon  on 17th April followed by Boston Marathon the 18th April before taking a break and continuing in September at the Berlin Marathon.
Let this announcement serve as ample motivation to win and win comprehensively for any Kenyan participant. We shall be proudly singing with you the victory song and enjoy playing that our national anthem once again!


NOTE:
Brand Kenya had made one of its major country branding strategies to focus on marketing the country through the major marathons across the world. They are currently setting up shop at Boston along RunWithKenyans which is seeking to partner along the same lines and create linkages between US marathoners and the Kenyan market.
Their work is now really cut out with such careless pronouncements from our European brothers.

Top Earning Sports Personalities in Kenya in 2010

Sport in Kenya has slowly become bread and butter for people fully engaged in it professionally. Fondly referred to by its peers as a ‘sporting nation’, the fact of the matter though is that much of the earnings are lop-sided with the one sport (athletics) accounting for almost 70% of total earnings.
The other sport, football also has two individuals sitting among the top earners but they ply their trade overseas with little or no earnings from the local scene. It is also worth noting that some sporting disciplines have been able to attract major sponsorships as a discipline but the trickle-down effect to the players has not been reflected. This is the case in golf and rugby which enjoyed in excess of KShs 1 billion and 0.5 billion respectively.
However going by the winnings, appearance fees and maybe some endorsement figures (throw ad revenues in there) and this is our list, in no particular order (most of these are estimates as actual figures are not easily availed here). We hope to inspire the budding talent waiting in the wings to take these individuals places;

Mariga - Image courtesy of www.inter.it

1. McDonald Mariga – having transferred to the Italian club Inter Milan from Parma mid-way last season, he was part of the 2010 UEFA Champions League, Italian League and Italian Cup title wins last year. Add with the heavily criticized ad and endorsement with UAP Insurance and Coca-Cola Kenya

{Estimates: $12,000,000 p.a., excl, bonuses and endorsements}

2. Samuel Wanjiru – winning the Chicago Marathon (prize money & time bonuses of US$ 115,000); as well as earning an appearance fee of an average of US$ 250,000. He also won the World Marathon Majors 2009-10 getting US$ 500,000. There is the sponsorship deal with Meiji Seika sponsorship deal ( makers of sports supplement Savas) worth US$ 3 million spread over 10 years signed in 2008

{Estimates:  US$ 500,000 for World Marathon title, US$ 115,000 prize money & bonus in Chicago, Appearance fees average of US$ 250,000 & US$ 300,000 per year for next 10 years from 2008-2018}

3. Dennis Oliech – he also plies his trade in Europe thus he has some sizeable income from the French League. He has not had much in endorsements both locally and abroad due to his initial big-headedness and national team mishaps. He has mellowed now and recently signed an extension contract with French club AJ Auxerre.

{Estimates:  between US$ 870,000 – 12,000,000 p.a.}

4. David Rudisha –the darling of the athletics world last year and Kenyans gave him a hell of a vote (online) and won the IAAF Male Sports Athlete of the Year; he also won a couple of races on the IAAF Diamond League of course attracting some bonuses as he broke the record twice in the space of one week

{Estimates: US$ 100,000 for World Athlete of the Year 2010, US$ 40,000 from IAAF Diamond League, undisclosed appearance and record breaking fees}

Nancy L- Gold medal 2010 CWG- New Delhi

5. Nancy Jebet Langat – she had a mixed year, being part of the winners of the inaugural IAAF Diamond League and also winning a Commonwealth gold ( some pickings from the government for winners can be added up); also won the Sports Personality of the Year Award-Kenya Female - 2010 edition 

{Estimates: US$ 40,000 IAAF Diamond League winnings, US$ 6,250 for 2010 SOYA Lady winner, Govt bonus from 2010 Commonwealth Gold medal}

5.    Other special mentions;

6. Mary Keitany – women half marathon specialists, won the World Half Marathon title in 2009, 2010 Abu Dhabi Half Marathon and Ras al Khaimah Half Marathon ( where she broke the world record this year)

{Estimates: US$ 357,740 in prize money, appearance fees and record-breaking bonuses

7. Edna Kiplagat – winner of 2010 Los Angeles Marathon and New York Marathon

{Estimates: US$ 303,000}

8. Wilson K. Kiprotich – marathoner

{Estimates: US$ 197,010}

Robert K. Cheruiyot - 2010 Boston Marathon Winner

9. Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot – winner of 2010 Boston Marathon, quoted saying he would buy 50 more cows from his prize money of US$ 175,000

{Estimates: US$ 175, 545}

Run with Kenyans

Friday found one of our contributors dutifully make it for a breakfast briefing by Brand Kenya. The morning's call was to launch activities geared towards marking the country's 50th (golden) anniversary ( yup Kenya's 50 on 2013!).

As has lately been realised by Government operatives and bodies tasked with promoting Kenya as nation brand, the use of sports is gaining credence and a focal point. As the Brand Kenya officials noted, it is important to leverage the country especially as it looks to mark some important milestones with an election next year as it moves to the next 50 years.

Sport has been known to unify the most warring of states and Kenya is no exception. As such some Kenyan entrepreneur who works in the US, one Wilson Kiriungi ,Marco Peterson(former IT entrepreneur) and Benjamin Rapoport (a medical practitioner) have come up with a organisation, Run With Kenyans. The motivation behind this organisation is to ride on the wave of Kenyan marathoners/athletes who have been winners of various top marathons across the world.

Using the goodwill built by the athletes, the organisation will target US recreational marathoners (the US has approximately 48 million of these, 15 million who run at least 10 times annually in the half & full marathons across the States). These runners are from the upper middle class to the affluent thus making good targets fpr sports tourism. 

Starting with the Boston Marathon, reputedly the oldest marathon in the world and which coincidentally has been won by Kenyans since 1991 (including a current sitting MP for Emgwen - Elijah Langat in 2000) ; the plans are to have a Kenyan House stand at the preceding Expo of the Marathon. This expo usually has an average attendance of 80,000. Replicating this across major marathons including the Chicago, New York, London among others. 

The other benefit is to pitch to the Kenyans living in the diaspora to cheer on their compatriots and also participate in the marathon(s). 

Robert 'Mwafrika' Cheruiyot - one of the past winners - Boston Marathon

We do wish them well in their endeavours and kudos to Brand Kenya for taking this initiative. This should not be the last of such ideas and the potent of sport is huge. If they can keep luring Government operatives away from the politics to focus more on such developments, the country will be all the better for this.

Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot wins Boston but Kenyan athletes may suffer losses

Thanks to our sportsmen we breath a sigh of relief again as the media is peppered by verbal diarrhoea and the tempers start rising thanks to the intended referendum mid this year.
One Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot ran the race of his life to win the Boston Marathon in race record. We congratulate him on this mean achievement. His is a worthy victory and firmly puts Kenya once again on the map.
On another note though, concerns have been raised about Kenyan athletes missing out on major races coming up in Europe in the next few weekends. The London Marathon comes to mind as well as the soon-to-continue Grand Prix in Europe. The earnings from our athletes is something that has been overlooked for many years but one which plays into our remittances from abroad. As much as $100,000 could be lost in a single weekend's missed earnings and endorsements as well as appearance fees.

Visit the North Rift Valley and you'll know what I'm talking about. Various options are being explored with some athletes thinking of taking shorter flights to North Africa where they can take the road into Europe.
It seems the volcanic ash was finally going to hurt us too. Talk about 'globalisation'.

Quick Update:
London Marathon organisers make arrangements for Kenyan athletes to be airlifted. Guess we do matter after all !