Wanjiru: A Column By Len Johnson
Sammy Wanjiru didn’t quite get the result expected in the Great Australian Run 15k. Dashing to Australia after his daughter, Allie, was taken ill, he arrived only 30 hours before the race. Perhaps he also underestimated the opposition and we overestimated what shape he would be in seven weeks after the Chicago marathon. In any case, he came fourth, though he remains the man most likely to relieve Haile Gebrselassie of the world record for the marathon.
By LEN JOHNSON
Some talk about Samuel Wanjiru being the man to break two hours for the marathon: all he asks for is just one second, the single unit of time which will take him under Haile Gebrselassie’s current world record.
Two hours, three minutes, 58 seconds will suit Wanjiru perfectly, thanks very much. He is 23 years old, the product of Kenyan heritage and Japanese training, and the Olympic champion. The only one of his five marathons he has lost was in a closing sprint to fellow-Kenyan Martin Lel in London last year. Wins in Fukuoka, the Beijing Olympic Games, London and Chicago more than balance that. Wanjiru does disappointment in a minor key.
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Most people talk about Wanjiru’s future, which is understandable given his age and the fact he appears to have barely scratched the surface of his potential. But this should not make us forget he has a past to die for.
Wanjiru’s approach to the marathon has been measured, as much as it may look otherwise as he drives a blazing pace from the start. A world record breaker in the half-marathon at the age of 18, he took the advice of his coach, Koichi Morishita, in his debut marathon at Fukuoka in 2007.
Morishita, the 1992 Barcelona Olympic silver medallist and coach of the Toyota Kyushu team of which Wanjiru was a member, counselled the young runner to go no faster than three-minute kilometre pace. He stuck to schedule, running the first half in 63:31, coming home ahead of eventual Olympic bronze medallist Deriba Merga in 63:08.
Wanjiru’s approach to the world record is similar. First, get it: then, worry about how much he can improve it.
“The first aim is to break the world record,” Wanjiru said in Melbourne. “Then I think I can run 2:02.”
Of course, the distance running world wanted to see a Wanjiru-Gebrselassie clash this year, but it did not eventuate. Given Gebrselassie’s stated intention to pursue records rather than opponents (at least until London 2012), it doesn’t seem likely we will see one ahead of the next Olympics.
Commercial pressures may conspire to keep the two apart until then; equally, they could bring them together. But even if he can’t race a marathon against Gebrselassie, Wanjiru gives him plenty of respect.
“(He is) a very strong guy,” says Wanjiru of the man widely regarded as the greatest distance runner ever. If he can’t race Gebrselassie, he aspires “to be like him.
“I want to run for many years, to go to another Olympics and defend my title,” says Wanjiru. Gebrselassie has an astonishing record of consistent brilliance since winning his first world championship in the 10,000 in Stuttgart in 1993.
To run 2:02, or faster, Wanjiru says he would need the help of “good pacemaker.” How far would they have to take him? “To 35km,” he replies. The problem might be that a pacemaker good enough to run that far at 2:02-pace might just go all the way!
The interesting question though is whether an orchestrated world record attempt _ even a successful one _ could be any more exciting than the way Wanjiru runs now. Looking at his Olympic run, you would be tempted to say ‘no’. Wanjiru drove the pace from the start, settled back to cruise mode in the middle (a very fast cruise), then raced his remaining opponents man-to-man over the concluding stages.
It was compelling viewing, and the same pattern has been repeated in London and Chicago this year. Wanjiru did not run the world championships in Berlin, but Abel Kirui ran a similar fast-paced and aggressive race to win the gold medal.
So Wanjiru may already have set a new template for the way championship marathons are run. You would think he will eventually get the world record, too _ probably sooner rather than later. But records are made to be broken; it falls to far fewer athletes to change the way their event is run.
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3 comments to "Wanjiru: A Column By Len Johnson"
Seems to me that the only pacemaker who can help Wanjiru to break the world’s record would be Gebrselassie…
The fact is that in order to break the marathon world’s record, the runner has to depend a lot on himself, and on his hability to pace himself with great precision for the last quarter of the race… Geb has shown he has that rare talent, which was not shown buy Wanjiru in Chicago…
Rubén Romero, Monterrey, México
The thing you didn't state explicitly but seemed to suggest is that the best way for either Wanjiru or Geb to lower the world record is to face each other. I find it a little sad that they (or at least Geb) would rather chase records separately than to give fans what they want (a competition). Personally, I care little if someone takes a few seconds off a world record (until it reaches 2 hours). I'd like to see a showdown. But I guess money works a little differently in marathoning than something like soccer or boxing because you can't really sell tickets.
You might not be able to sell tickets, but these two going head-to-head would certainly generate great interest and coverage on TV. The problem, I think, isn't in the event's ability to recoup its money in sponsorships. I think it's that whichever one wins doesn't get the payday that they are basically assured if they run separate races.
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