Athletics Kenya's decision yesterday to have a February marathon Olympic Trials is totally absurd

They could just run the LA Marathon on Feb 14th, which is the day after the US trials

gregmacd wrote:

They could just run the LA Marathon on Feb 14th, which is the day after the US trials

If you set aside all how stupid it is to announce this at this point LA wouldn't be a bad choice. Probably one of the marathons that could have conditions similar to an olympic marathon in February. At least temp and humidity wise. They'll probably keep on making this worse and have the trials at 8000ft.

LA doesn't offer signing bonuses, do they? Just big prize money, right?

If so, that would be good for the Kenyan trials. Their top 3 would get a nice payday, and the others could drop out at half or 30K and just consider it a training run towards London or Boston which would be about 9 weeks away.

When are the trials normally?

When are the trials normally?

The real problem here is the structure of marathoning for Olympics. Because elite marathoners can do so few races and depend on those races for payday's asking them to forfeit a payday for trials and then possible another for the Olympics is ridiculous.

Its time that IAAF recognized the marathon does not fit the same mold as the other events. They should do something along the lines of guaranteeing the top 20 or 30 marathoners in the world entry to the Olympic marathon regardless of how many of each nationality it puts in the field.

There is no way the majority of marathoners aren't going to lose financially with a trials system given you can only run 2 to 3 marathons at a high level each year.

cool kid wrote:

When are the trials normally?

Kenya has never had trials for the marathon, at least officially. Up until 2012, Kenyan marathon team was randomly picked by Athletics Kenya officials. From 2012, it appears as if London marathon has been the unofficial trials though AK officials.

The new development however is bound to prove a disaster due to the restrictions imposed on those selected to the team. Expect the likes of Wilson Kipsang, Dennis Kimetto, Eliud Kipchoge and Gladys Cherono, Mary Keitany, Florence Kiplagat not to show up. That leaves room for 2:06 marathoners and I believe Abel Kirui won't have any problem showing up.

Primo Numero Uno wrote:

The real problem here is the structure of marathoning for Olympics. Because elite marathoners can do so few races and depend on those races for payday's asking them to forfeit a payday for trials and then possible another for the Olympics is ridiculous.

Its time that IAAF recognized the marathon does not fit the same mold as the other events. They should do something along the lines of guaranteeing the top 20 or 30 marathoners in the world entry to the Olympic marathon regardless of how many of each nationality it puts in the field.

There is no way the majority of marathoners aren't going to lose financially with a trials system given you can only run 2 to 3 marathons at a high level each year.

Yet the top americans like meb and hall can miss london and show up for the trials?

The issue isnt the trials, its going to be the prize purse. Kenya needs to offerr appearance fees at this thing and prizes comprable to London. Televise it internationally and maybe invite some elites from other nations.

I love this idea and don't know why the brojos and others don't. It needed to happen. Who is to say the winner of Chicago isn't a better racer than the winner of Berlin. Berlin has rabbits, Chicago didn't. Who is better the london winner or boston winner? Too often the selection for Kenya has just been to pick the top runners in the London marathon or maybe Tokyo and Dubai. How long has the US been doing trials? If it wasn't since the earlly 1900s, I'm sure someone got upset when we implemented it.

I don't think the trials is going to be a problem for the very best Kenyans. Which would you rather do win riches or be well off and compete in the world's best marathon competition (the oly marathon)?

Oly Gold is going to be more important to most Kenyans than a London pay day.

And guess what! If a Kenyan runner doesn't finish top 3, there is still time to recover and train for a May or June marathon. Yuki Kawachi would laugh at the notion that someone couldn't run this race and London.

To me it seems the only problem with this race is Kenyans will have to interrupt their ped cycles to avoid testsing positive here.

Now we can be sure we'll see the best Kenyans in Rio, or at least the best clean ones, which to me should be the same thing.

You sir have no understanding of financials of the marathon elites. Comparing the financial situation of top Americans to that of the Kenyan marathoners is pointless. The financials are not comparable due to marketability and sponsorship value of athletes like Meb and Hall. To guys like Meb and Hall sponsors will also make running the trials more financially beneficial than the Kenyan's sponsors.

And it is laughable to expect the Kenyan trials to have appearance fees or prize money comparable to London. Plus you're putting about half of the top marathoners in the world in one race rather than numerous spring marathons that have decent amounts of money.

If I was a 2:05 Kenyan I would skip the trials and a CHANCE at making the

Olympic team for the payday opportunity in the spring.

Seems like I remember in the 1990s or 200s that AK used Boston as their de facto trials. Top 3 at Boston were supposed to be their Olympic team.

if I were a top kenyan, I'd run both the trials and a spring marathon or the olys

its not an either or thing

kenya needs to start making running a sport for all kenyans and notttttt just rift valley's fastest. Domestic competition should be lucrative and cause the sale of merchandise to youth in nairobi and elsewhere.

If done right, this trials can be a good thing. Will AK do it right? Lets give them the benefit of the doubt until it happens.

Mr. Teach you just don't know when to stop talking about a topic you clearly know nothing about. Running the trials and a spring marathon? Most of the big spring marathons are done by the end of April which would give you a two month turnaround after the trials. Not a good choice. Plus no intelligent meet director will give a decent appearance fee to a Kenyan athlete who has run a marathon that recently.

Domestic competition lucrative? Do you know what the average household income is in Kenya, I think the rest of their economy needs to do some catching up to their running first.

Give AK benefit of the doubt? You earn that right. AK has messed up everything they touch, they do not get the benefit of the doubt. They've already screwed this up by announcing trials 4 months in advance and on top of that not having a location or any kind of plan in place. This screams incompetence.

As usual, the worst part of Athletics Kenya is not having a clear plan at least two years out so their athletes know how to prepare their training and racing schedules accordingly.

Announcing mid October for a mid Feb plan for marathoners is pretty ignorant of the sport.

But a true Kenyan trials (with enough advanced notice) would be the best marathon ever and surpass the Olympics or any major marathon.

edward teach wrote:

To me it seems the only problem with this race is Kenyans will have to interrupt their ped cycles to avoid testsing positive.

You think AK will do drug tests post race? That on its own would be huge!

"Yuki Kawachi would laugh at the notion that someone couldn't run this race and London."

Hope he doesn't laugh while he's taking his "vitamins", wouldn't want him to choke.

I can agree that announcing this late is a screw up, but not that a kenyan oly trials in and of itself is a terrible plan. Would the world rather that the 6 best kenyans run the oly marathon, or tthat 50 good kenyans pick up some prize money in Boston, Tokyo, Dubai, etc. If patriotism is not important, Qatar, the UAE, and some other oil states are sitting around with checks and citizenship papers.

I don''t think this race is gonna hurt the Kenyans as much financially as you guys think. Before all the sponsored Kenyans were just numbers, distinguishable by pr, but who knows how the courses they ran stack up. This will give us clear rankings. We know who the top 5--10 kenyans are, but how do they stack up head to head?

Shoe sponsors will see which Kenyans to give their money to and make international names. Race directors will see who they've never heard of they should offer an appearance fee.

A trials levels the playing field. We've had runners compete in both Dubai and London or another spring marathon before and do well in both.

This race will make Dubai irrelevant or an Ethiopian only race, but besides that the spring thons will be fine. If some tired out under trained Kenyans lose to a bunch of white guys in London and Boston, I'll eat my words, but until then we need to wait to see how things play out.

edward teach wrote:

kenya needs to start making running a sport for all kenyans and notttttt just rift valley's fastest. Domestic competition should be lucrative and cause the sale of merchandise to youth in nairobi and elsewhere.

Agree. Don't look at the Kenya of today. The world is changing fast. The rich Kenyans could finance a solid trials prize money.

The "third world" is catching up, let's go with the times.

vvbrb3erb wrote:

"Yuki Kawachi would laugh at the notion that someone couldn't run this race and London."

Hope he doesn't laugh while he's taking his "vitamins", wouldn't want him to choke.

WTF are you babbling about, retard?

vvbrb3erb wrote:

"Yuki Kawachi would laugh at the notion that someone couldn't run this race and London."

Hope he doesn't laugh while he's taking his "vitamins", wouldn't want him to choke.

Yuki doesn't run for Salazar's NOPharmaceutical team.