The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
8 December 2011
Iten — It’s a dilemma that other nations can only eye with envy: Kenya simply has too many top athletes chasing the final spot on its revered men’s Olympic marathon team.
With Kenya’s marathon runners making an unprecedented clean sweep of all six major races in 2011, selectors face the major headache of choosing the last remaining man to represent the country at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Wilson Kipsang’s time of 2hr 03mins 42secs, clocked when he won the Frankfurt marathon in late October, was the second fastest time in the world — but even that has not guaranteed him a place on team.
“The selection is proving difficult to make,” said Kipsang, speaking in between one of his intense training sessions here in Kenya’s high altitude region favoured by athletes.
Emmanuel Mutai, who won this year’s London marathon in a time of 2:04:40, said: “Several of us have run very fast times this year and are not even in the team. “It just goes to show how competitive it is to be selected to compete for Kenya.”
In the past, team selectors for major races — including the Olympics and world championships — based their choices on athletes’ performances at the London and Boston marathons in April.
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