The power of fathers in careers of their sons in one-mile feats

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a new brave world thanks to a combination of generational athletics talent.

It's interesting to understand how some male athletes picked up their father’s one-mile prowess while others ventured into the race with brilliance as they staged good shows in eye-popping, history-making and mind-blowing fashions.

For some households, running is an inherited cash crop where athletics talent runs deep in the blood.

There is something special in the men’s one-mile race: there are a record 15 father to son combinations that have broken sub four-minute personal bests in the one-mile race.

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And history features prominently on these three meets –the UK Emsley Carr Mile, the Prefontaine Classic Bowerman Mile in Eugene and the Dream Mile in Oslo, Norway.  

Kipchoge Keino, the 1968 Olympic 1500m champion, and his son Martin Keino as well as David Kebenei, fourth-placed at the 1987 African Games 1500m contest and son Asbel Kiprop, the three-time Olympic 1500m champion, are the only Kenyan father and son pair who dipped below the four-minute mark in one-mile contests.

Kipchoge and Martin Keino were the first father and son combination to dip below four minutes for the mile.

Kipchoge set his personal best of 3:54.2 at the UK’s Emsley Carr Mile in 1965 while Martin posted his best mark of 3:58.73 in 1994 at the Dream Mile showdown in Oslo.

Martin pays glowing tribute to his father Keino. “My father running the mile really motivated me to break four minutes in that distance. I first broke it in college way back in 1994 in Eugene, Oregon, in 3.58.

“And then posted a better mark of 3:53 at the same meet in 1996 and then followed by the Dream Mile in Oslo where I set my best of 3:52. I did run in London the following year at the Emsley Carr Mile. All were great experiences though the Prefontaine Classic stood out as the one of the best places to run the mile as it was the feature event of the meet and there was a fantastic atmosphere there,” he said.

Keino shared a sneak preview of an excerpt from a book he’s working on about his historic Dream Mile contest in Oslo in 1996.

“Later that evening, we went to the stadium in preparation to race. The Bislett Games Stadium in Oslo was an iconic facility with a great history of records in the middle distances. So, racing the Dream Mile there, one of the most famous races in world athletics, was a huge honour. The field had top athletes among them Noureddine Morceli, the then world champion and record holder, in the mile field.

“Fermin Cacho, the 1992 Olympic champion, as well as other top mile athletes like Steve Holman, Marcus O’Sullivan, and John Mayock. I was also excited to be racing against some old top college milers like Graham Hood and Niall Bruton whom I had never beaten before.

“Being a tight six-lane track, the start was going to be messy for a big field such as ours. And it was quite a fight to get going once the gun went off. The beauty of running in Bislett was that the crowd was so close to the track and cheered like mad, hitting the sponsor boards and creating an amazing atmosphere that was so loud,” said the young Keino.

Martin said he had not competed in such a stadium before. “But I was keen to run fast and improve on my mile personal best. The first 800m was fairly uneventful with the pacemakers sorting out the pace to a single file line.

“At the 950 metres mark, an athlete stepped on my spike and hung halfway off my foot that forced me to kick it off, covering the rest of the race with one shoe. I lacked traction on one foot and my foot kept on slipping.

“But I hung on with the field in fifth place and maintained it to the finish. I was distracted by that incident, only focusing on not getting spiked for the rest of the race and couldn’t accelerate any more than I wanted to as the foot kept slipping on the track surface.

“At the finish line, I saw that I had improved on my personal best of 3:52.33 by one second from my Eugene race earlier in the season. I was happy with it but knew I could have run much faster had I not lost the shoe,” he said.

Martin, who paced seven world records, helped Daniel Komen, Kenenisa Bekele and Haile Gebresellasie set world records.

He was the pace setter for Komen when he set two all-time marks and Ethiopia's Haile Gebresellasie and Kenenisa Bekele, who broke world records in 5000m and 10000m.

Martin led Komen to set world records in two miles twice, posting 8:0354 and slapping the current record of 7:58.61 in Hechtel, Belgium, on July, 19, 1997.

“Dad encouraged me when I showed interest in athletics. Unfortunately, he set the bar too high that I could not beat. I appreciate the fact that he did not put too much pressure on me to perform,” said Martin.

There is also the fairytale of the late James Seurei, who beat Kipkosgei Chepsiya and David Kebenei to win the gold medal at the 1987 Africa Games 1,500m in Kasarani Stadium.

That marked the beginning to a then endless track rivalry as all of them groomed their sons to over 1500m mantle.  

Seurei was the father of 1,500m athlete Kenyan-Bahraini Benson Kiplagat while Chepsiya, the then bronze medalist, had his son Andrew Rotich, a versatile metric mile runner.

Chepsiya and Seurei did not dip under four minutes in the mile while their sons did. 

Asbel, with a personal best of 3:48.50 set at the 2009 Prefontaine Classic Bowerman Mile, won Oslo Dream Mile five times to be crowned the ‘Five Star General’ in the Norwegian city. His dad Kebenei posted 3:59.35 at the UK Emsley Carr Mile in 1982.

In 2014, Asbel competed against his father Kebenei at the Nike International Discovery cross country meeting in Eldoret.

Asbel finished in eighth place while his dad could not take the high pace and dropped off mid-way.

The Keino and Asbel households form a growing list of father and son one-mile stars who have run in under four minutes, with Americans toasting in a rare fry of the glory.

They include Barry and Darren Brown who were the first US father and son under four-minute one-minute stars; Reuben Reina and son Reuben Jr and the Gregoreks who produced the best overall father and son mile combination of (John 3:51.34 and John Jr 3:49.98).

Sadly, none in the list managed to break the all-time mark. The world record in the mile has only been broken three times in the past 40 years; by Steve Cram in 1985 in 3:46.32, Noureddine Morceli in 1993 in 3:44:39 and Hicham El Guerrouj (3:43.13) in 1999. El Guerrouj once said: “No one will break the barrier of 3:42 in the mile distance in the next 100 years.”