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Marathon
effort
needed to
catch
Africans
By Simon
Hart
April,13,2008
Here's an
idea for the
organisers
of today's
Flora London
Marathon. It
is exactly
100 years
ago that the
official
marathon
distance was
elongated
from 25
miles to 26
miles, 385
yards at the
1908 London
Olympics to
allow the
Royal Family
to start the
race in
Windsor and
then watch
the finish
in front of
the Royal
Box at White
City.
Bud
Baldaro's
marathon
running tips
Countdown to
the Beijing
Olympics
So, to mark
the
centenary of
that
historic
rule change,
why not
allow
Britain's
best male
runners to
race over
the original
25-mile
distance
while the
international
athletes
keep to the
normal route
from
Greenwich
Park to The
Mall?
Not even in
the picture:
British
runners are
unlikely to
challenge
the 2007
winner
Martin Lel
It is, after
all, the
only way we
will get the
chance to
see a
British
victory for
the
foreseeable
future,
though even
with a
mile-and-a-quarter
start there
still would
be no
guarantee of
a home win.
The sad fact
is that it
is 15 years
since a
British man
won in
London and
since then
the gap
between
domestic
runners and
the
African-dominated
elite has
become
embarrassingly
wide.
It is not
just a
matter of
Africans
getting
faster.
British
times have
been going
the other
way. Last
year the
top-placed
Briton, Dan
Robinson,
was 6min
31sec behind
the Kenyan
winner,
Martin Lel,
while in
2003 the
gulf between
winner and
first
British man
home, Chris
Cariss, was
a whopping
10min 1sec.
To rub salt
into male
wounds,
Cariss still
had half a
mile to run
as Paula
Radcliffe's
bobbing head
crossed the
finish line
in a world
record time
of 2hr 15min
25sec.
advertisementThis
year
promises to
be a similar
tale of
British
under-achievement.
Robinson and
fellow
Britons
Tomas Abyu
and Pete
Riley will
have the
incentive of
trying to
gain Olympic
selection in
what is an
official
British
trial for
Beijing but
theirs will
be nothing
more than a
race within
a race.
The likes of
Lel and
compatriots
Felix Limo
and Sammy
Wanjiru will
be dots in
the
distance.
Eamonn
Martin, the
last British
winner in
1993,
believes the
situation is
so serious
that
promoters of
track and
cross-country
meetings in
Britain, the
breeding
ground for
future
marathon
runners,
should now
consider
limiting the
number of
African
entries to
prevent home
athletes
from
becoming too
demoralised.
"I'm not
trying to
soften
things up or
kid our
athletes but
we've got to
coax our
guys back
into some
sort of
self-belief,"
he said.
"We've got
to stop
knocking
that belief
and saying
to athletes,
'You're 18
years of age
and you're
never going
to get
anywhere
because the
Africans are
going to
dominate'.
Let's look
at what can
be done."
With the
exception of
Somalia-born
Briton Mo
Farah, the
decline of
marathon
standards is
replicated
at 5,000m
and 10,000m,
which means
there is no
longer the
conveyor
belt of
talent to
produce the
world-class
marathon
runners of
the future.
It is a
problem not
just in
Britain but
across
Europe. At
last week's
Paris
Marathon,
the first 14
male runners
home were
all African
while the
fastest
Frenchman
was 21st.
Alan Storey,
UK
Athletics'
senior
performance
manager for
endurance,
who coached
Hugh Jones
and Allister
Hutton to
London
victories in
1982 and
1990,
believes
declining
standards in
Britain are
a direct
result of
African
domination.
"If you look
back, the
fastest
British
marathon
runners of
all time
were people
who had
pretty good
track
careers and
then
migrated to
the
marathon,"
he said.
"We don't
have very
many runners
who are as
good at
5,000 or
10,000
metres as we
used to have
because it's
harder for
them to make
a living now
because the
standards
are so high.
"We used to
have people
who were
competitive
at 10,000
metres at
the
Olympics. To
be able to
win the
Olympics now
you have to
be able to
run 26min
30sec. We've
only had two
Britons ever
who are
within a lap
of that. So
why should
people
devote their
lives to
make no
money and to
be a lap
behind at
the
Olympics?"
All of which
begs the
question,
why are
British
women still
able compete
with the
best while
our men are
so far off
the pace?
Storey has a
simple
explanation.
"On an
annual basis
there are
about 250
Kenyans
under 2hrs
20min for
the marathon
- in other
words,
within 15
minutes of
the world
record.
"If you add
15 minutes
to the
women's
world record
and look to
see how many
Kenyan women
are in that
time zone,
you'll find
that it's
probably 10
or 12.
"In Africa
the culture
is for young
women to
race abroad
and then go
back and
have
families. It
means there
are far
fewer
African
women
participating,
which means
they don't
dominate the
sport like
the men."
Martin, who
is now
manager of
the English
cross-country
team and
coaches at
his club in
Basildon,
admits he is
frustrated
by the
situation
but says
there is no
point
dwelling on
the
negative.
"We've got
to look at
how we can
find a
solution,"
he said.
"Maybe we
need some
sort of
think tank
with a group
of athletes
who ran much
faster than
athletes are
running
today. We've
never been
asked, 'What
do we
think?'"
As for the
immediate
future, he
would like
to think
Farah will
make a
decent
marathon
runner and
would dearly
love to lose
his record
as the last
British man
to win in
London.
"I would
hate to
think that
it's never
going to
happen
again," he
said. "That
would be
terrible. I
won it 15
years ago
and that is
good enough
for me. I
don't need
to be
remembered
as the last
British man
to have won
it. That
gives me no
satisfaction
whatsoever."
www.telegraph.co.uk/hart
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