US
Martin Kettle
Organisers of marathons and long-distance road races in the United States are barring or limiting entrants from Kenya – the most frequent winners – and offering higher prizes to American competitors.
The move is overtly anti-African and, in many eyes, racist.
The prestigious Bolder Boulder race in Colorado has just restricted Kenyan entrants to three places in next month’s contest. Kenyans took six of the first eight places last year and eight of the first 10 in 1996.
American entries, by contrast, will not be limited.
The race director, Bill Reef, is explicitly protectionist about the restrictions. “It’s our country, our event, our money. American sponsors want American winners, or at least Americans among the top finishers.”
He says he wants to level the playing fields. But that is not how the Kenyans see it. To them, the restrictions flout the international nature of the global athletics circuit and prevent them earning their living as professional runners where ever they can.
Last year Kenyans won the Boston, New York and Honolulu marathons and dozens of other events. This year they have won six of the eight races so far on the professional road-racing circuit and hold the first seven places on the overall money list.
They also offend by not giving the kind of upbeat interviews after the race that the organisers and sponsors crave. They often appear quiet, withdrawn and uneasy amid all the promotional razzmatazz – and several organisers are not prepared to put up with it any longer.
It is not hard to see why the organisers of the Gate River run in Jacksonville, Florida, were the first to restrict prize money to Americans.
An American, Todd Williams, won last month’s race and ended a state-wide television interview by saying: “I love Jacksonville. And I love Gate.”
Other races have employed different tactics to achieve the same effect.
The George Sheehan five-mile run in New Jersey has restricted entries to sponsored teams. A 24km race in Tampa, Florida, has ceased to award prize money at all.
The Kenyan Godfrey Kiprotich said: “Last year I won a race and got $2E500.
“The first American, far behind me, got $5E000. How can the American be motivated to run better?”