Why the 10,000 metre duck remains elusive for Kenya

Naftali Temu winning the 10,000m at the 1968 Mexico City. (Courtesy)

One person who can fully understand Kenya’s frustration in the 10,000 metres race at the Olympics and IAAF World Championships is Raila Odinga. He knows how everyone has expected him to win the presidential elections but something always happens. Kenyans are the kings of middle and long distance races yet the twenty-five lap race has been slippery.

At the ongoing Olympics in Paris, Kenya’s representatives in the 10,000 metres race Benard Kibet and Daniel Matieko came in at fifth and eleventh positions respectively. The race was won by Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei who also broke the Olympics record. He had come second to Ethiopian Selemon Barega at the last games in Tokyo. We missed the podium in a race that we have come close to several times but never won. Kenya has won one gold and four silver medals in the history of the race.

Kenya’s first gold medal at the Olympics came from this race when Naftali Temu won at the 1968 games in Mexico. The famous Haile Gebrselassie win over Paul Tergat in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney was a revenge against Temu. Ethiopian Mamo Wolde was leading from the time the bell rang for the last lap. Everyone thought Wolde was going to win it until about fifty metres to the tape when Temu came from behind and passed him.

In the 1992 games in Barcelona, Moroccan Khalid Skah left a scar in our quest to break the 10,000 metres duck. A Moroccan athlete who had been lapped and was supposed to have stepped out of the track stepped in as Richard Chelimo and Skah were sprinting to the finish line. Chelimo was distracted as Skah went on to take the gold.

In the 2000 Olympics, Paul Tergat was at his peak. Just like Temu, he was a Kenya Armed Forces officer at the time. He was running his last 10,000 metres race before switching to the marathon.

To finish on a high, Tergat was leading into the last lap and Gebrselassie was nowhere to be seen. Then all of a sudden Gebrselassie began to sprint behind him and the two went sprinting to the finishing line as if they had just joined the race at the bell. Gebrselassie won the race by the thickness of his vest.  

Gebrselassie tormented our athletes over the distance in the 1990s. He also prevented Paul Tanui from defending his world championship title in Stuttgart, Germany in 1993. Tanui and his compatriot Richard Chelimo were heading to the finishing line in a one-two finish when Gebrselassiepopped from nowhere and spoiled the party. He won gold, squeezing past Tanui with about thirty metres left.

It was a painful loss for Tergat. He had set a new record in the race in 1997, breaking Gebrselassie’s record set in 1996. Then at the 1997 IAAF World Championships in Athens, Tergat came second behind the diminutive Ethiopian. The following year, Gebrselassie took five seconds off Tergat’s record to highlight their rivalry. Tergat had also come second to him at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Tergat is one of our greatest long distance runners but the 10,000 metres race win at the Olympics was elusive to him. His record is still the national record.

The irony is Kenyans have won the race at the World Championships thrice, in 1987, 1991 and 2001 in Edmonton Canada. We have also broken the half marathon race that is twice the distance of this race many times. Michael Musyoki broke the record in 1982 and 1986, setting it at 1:00:43. Kenyans then broke it twice in 1993, Benson Masya at 1:00:24 and then Moses Tanui cut the times to below one hour to 59:47. In 1998 Paul Tergat ran the half marathon in a time of 59:17 before cutting it again to 59:06 in the year 2000. Despite all this, the 10,000 metres gold has remained elusive.

It takes a lot more to win the trials for the race to represent Kenya at the international meetings. Those selected, however, tend to fall short in the actual race.

It was Ethiopians who kept us away from victory, then Mo’ Farah came and now Ugandans have found the secret that has evaded us for decades. Cheptegei became the first Ugandan to win the race, after winning the 5,000 metres race in 2020 Tokyo. He is also the record holder in the race which he set last year’s World Championships in Budapest.

 Athletics Kenya must find a way out.