Justin Lagat, our senior writer in Kenya, wrote this piece on the effect that canceled events in Europe will have on the Eldoret City Marathon and other local Kenyan events. This also comes on the heel of Athletics Kenya not allowing top athletes to travel outside of Kenya.
Eliud Kipchoge, will he be affected by the Athletics Kenya announcement on elite athlete travel? photo by NN Running team
Runners will keep running despite the cancellation of road races across the world. It takes a long process, of several months, for runners to get ready for their goal marathon races and when they are canceled, it is hard for them to just let the many hours of hard work and early morning wake-ups to just go like that. Many are now shifting their focus on smaller races around them, or even organizing their own group time trials or smaller races for the season.
In Kenya, it looks like the elite runners that would have been spread out into many road races abroad will now have to all descend on one local race in Eldoret; the Eldoret City Marathon. That is if the marathon won’t be canceled as well.
So far, the Athletics federation in the country has banned the traveling of runners and their support personnel out of the country for any sporting activities until further notice is issued. This leaves Kenyan runners with no other option but to look for races to participate in within the country.
Rome, Paris, Vienna City, and New York City half marathons are among the many road races that have, so far, either been canceled or postponed due to the spread of the coronavirus. So, even if some other big races coming up may not be cancelled in their countries, the Kenyan runners may not get the clearance to go out and run them.
The depth of elite fields in almost all the major marathon races out there have often been measured, in one way or the other, by the number of Kenyan runners in them. What will likely happen next month, on the 19th, is that a combination of all the depths of the elite fields in the races that may not be run this season will converge on the 3rd edition of the rapidly growing and richest marathon race in Kenya.
Who knows? We could be having Eliud Kipchoge running alongside Lawrence Cherono and Geoffrey Kamworor, among others at the Eldoret City Marathon this year! Or, Brigid Kosgei versus Vivian Cheruiyot in the women’s race!
This might sound like some great news to the race organizers of this marathon since they will get the best elite fields this year without having to pay them the appearance money they would often get to participate in other races abroad. However, it may not be such good news to the upcoming runners who wanted to use this race to establish their names or even win some prize money in the process.
