Kiprop has all it takes to break 10000m jinx
Jan 03, 2006
At Bugembe Stadium, Jinja, early last year, I was standing close to the back straight inside lane, when the leader, Boniface Kiprop, ran past in the 10000m.
By Kevin O’Connor
At Bugembe Stadium, Jinja, early last year, I was standing close to the back straight inside lane, when the leader, Boniface Kiprop, ran past in the 10000m.
His running style was almost poetry in motion. For although his shoulders do roll a little, he was up on his toes, with his feet striking the ground so lightly that I could barely hear his footfall.
Kiprop has matched his majestic running action with some majestic performances. He has won a 10000m gold medal at the World Junior Championships, and on two occasions won silver in the World Cross Country junior race.
As a newly-turned senior, his 4th position in the 10000m in both the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2005 Helsinki World Championships, meant that, heartbreakingly for Ugandans, he just missed out on a medal.
The absence of the Ethiopians will surely mean that he will win a medal in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March. But will that medal be gold? I don’t think so.
This pessimism is due to the underlying reason why medals eluded him in Athens and Helsinki – he still lacks the sprinting speed generally required for victory on the last laps of a championship 10000m.
He is, however, gradually developing this quality — as reflected by his second place finish in the IAAF Grand Prix Final in Monaco, where he closed the gap on the winner.
But there is still some way to go, and a more imaginative approach is also required in his preparation.
At the Jinja meeting, he should not have run the 10000m, in which, of course, he was the easy winner.
Instead, had he chosen to race the 800m or 1500m, he would have been beaten by middle distance specialists like Jimmy Adar, but much more importantly, he would have sharpened his speed.
So I predict that Kiprop will be outsprinted, probably by a Kenyan, in the closing stages of the Commonwealth Games 10000m race, and win silver medal. But I hope I am wrong.
At Bugembe Stadium, Jinja, early last year, I was standing close to the back straight inside lane, when the leader, Boniface Kiprop, ran past in the 10000m.
His running style was almost poetry in motion. For although his shoulders do roll a little, he was up on his toes, with his feet striking the ground so lightly that I could barely hear his footfall.
Kiprop has matched his majestic running action with some majestic performances. He has won a 10000m gold medal at the World Junior Championships, and on two occasions won silver in the World Cross Country junior race.
As a newly-turned senior, his 4th position in the 10000m in both the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2005 Helsinki World Championships, meant that, heartbreakingly for Ugandans, he just missed out on a medal.
The absence of the Ethiopians will surely mean that he will win a medal in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March. But will that medal be gold? I don’t think so.
This pessimism is due to the underlying reason why medals eluded him in Athens and Helsinki – he still lacks the sprinting speed generally required for victory on the last laps of a championship 10000m.
He is, however, gradually developing this quality — as reflected by his second place finish in the IAAF Grand Prix Final in Monaco, where he closed the gap on the winner.
But there is still some way to go, and a more imaginative approach is also required in his preparation.
At the Jinja meeting, he should not have run the 10000m, in which, of course, he was the easy winner.
Instead, had he chosen to race the 800m or 1500m, he would have been beaten by middle distance specialists like Jimmy Adar, but much more importantly, he would have sharpened his speed.
So I predict that Kiprop will be outsprinted, probably by a Kenyan, in the closing stages of the Commonwealth Games 10000m race, and win silver medal. But I hope I am wrong.