Robert Cheruiyot recalls the anguish of growing up in a broken home, forced to live with a string of relatives in Kenya's highlands.
The only constant was poverty and the memory is not lost on him as he pounds a running course as few runners can.
"It made me think a lot about my future then, and it is still a powerful driving force," said Cheruiyot, who last Monday won his third Boston Marathon title in five attempts.
PHOTO: AP
Cheruiyot is among the many East Africans to have thrived since road racing began awarding prize money in the 1980s.
The 28-year-old runner attributes the supremacy to a fiery hunger for success in the highlands of Kenya and neighboring Ethiopia.
Critical forces
Scientists and road racing experts say there may be other critical forces, including genetic and environmental factors and the lure of money as marathons evolved from amateur to professional events.
A 2000 study of Kenyan, South African and Scandinavian endurance runners showed that the Kenyans' long, slender legs could give them an advantage. The research by the Copenhagen Muscle Research Center in Denmark indicates Kenyans may need less energy to move their less dense legs.
East Africans also spent years running long distances to and from schools when they were children, unlike counterparts from richer countries, Cheruiyot said.
"I used to run for about 25 minutes when going to school in the morning and on the way back home in the afternoon," he said, describing his experience of growing up in Kenya's Rift Valley Province.
Great Rift Valley
The bulk of Kenya's and Ethiopia's top athletes come from rural highland areas on the Great Rift Valley, a massive depression running from southeastern Africa to the Arabian Peninsula.
Growing up and playing in areas where supplies of oxygen become thinner with rising altitude helped many East African runners prepare for endurance events, said Patrick Lynch, who helps recruit top runners for the Boston Marathon.
Amby Burfoot, the US winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon, compared East African runners to "the little economy cars that can go 50 miles on a gallon [80km on 3.8 liters] of gasoline -- they can run more miles, and faster."
Runners from East Africa hold 116 of the top 396 men's marathon results of all time, with Kenya's Paul Tergat holding the world marathon record of 2 hours, 4 minutes, 55 seconds. East Africans have also recorded seven of the top 10 results.
Kenyan men have won in Boston 15 times in the last 17 years and East Africans have won the New York City Marathon seven times since 1997. East African men also won the London Marathon four times during that period.
East African distance runners first made their mark when Ethiopia's Abebe Bikila set a world record while running barefoot at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
People in the US learned more about of the East Africans during the 1968 Olympics when the uncoached Kipchoge Keino of Kenya won the 1,500m, beating Jim Ryun by 20m -- then the largest margin of victory ever in the event.
East Africans became increasingly prominent in European, Asian and US marathon circuits, but their mastery was established in the 1980s after prize money was introduced.
The financial incentives galvanized shoe companies and athletic managers set up training camps in Kenyan highlands, encouraging talented runners to take advantage of prize money and appearance fees.
Success comes at such a steep physical price for endurance runners that many elite marathoners compete only twice a year, once in the spring and again in the fall.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but