A diminutive young Kenyan is being tipped to be the first man to run the marathon in under two hours, writes Dan Silkstone.No private jet ushered Samuel Wanjiru into Australia last night, no TV helicopters followed his tollroad journey to a city hotel.
For the second time in less than a month a truly world class sporting star landed in Melbourne. Perhaps we are not yet quite awake to just how good he is. There are many, though, who would have you believe that the 23-year-old will finish his career every bit as important to the sport of athletics as Tiger Woods is to golf.
Wanjiru is already a freak, a phenomenon, a once in a generation talent. The tiny Kenyan entered his first marathon at age 17 and won it. He broke the world half-marathon at 18 and won gold in Beijing at 21.
In the world of the marathon this should not happen. Distance running requires the type of mental strength and physical stamina that takes time to develop. Already, Wanjiru sits at the top of his sport. Already attention is firmly fixed on where he can take it.
The best set big goals, never fearing the size of the failure should they miss. Wanjiru has set a whopper: to run a marathon inside two hours.
Many think it impossible, he disagrees. ''It will be very hard but I can try,'' he told theHerald this week. ''It is something I am aiming for.''
The Kenyan's other goal is to finish his career as the best ever distance runner. The man who currently holds that unofficial title - Haile Gebrselassie - is an idol and inspiration but, in truth, Wanjiru has achieved more than the Ethiopian at a similar age.
He has hardly run at all on the track yet set times as a junior that are faster than anything Gebrselassie managed until he was in his thirties. Athletics nerds drool at the thought of a serious tilt at the 5000 or 10,000 and the man who rules those events, Kenenisa Bekele.
Wanjiru is closing fast, having won major marathons in London and Chicago in the past 12 months. Asked if he thought he could finish his career as the greatest of all time he said: ''Yes, it could be. I am still young - everything is possible.''
Tomorrow, a different task awaits. Melbourne's Great Australian Run will start and finish at Albert Park, taking in along the 15km journey the Tan Track and sections of the city and St Kilda Road. It is a race won handsomely last year by Gebrselassie in 42 minutes, 40 seconds.
It is no disrespect to him that, barring bad weather or misadventure, Wanjiru should make short work of that time and claim the race record. Already he has taken the great Ethiopian's world marks for the half marathon and 20km distance.
With favourable conditions expected he is also a strong chance to shake the 15km world record of 41.29. ''It is possible,'' he said. ''Let's see after the race.''
His biggest rivals for the race - Australian Collis Birmingham and Italian 2004 Olympic champion Stefano Baldini - were in little doubt yesterday about the challenge in front of them.
''He is the present and the future of distance running,'' Baldini said. ''He is the only man now able to beat Haile Gebrselassie's record.''
The Italian, a European and Olympic champion who is in top form said he believed he would be running for second. ''We can be running 43 minutes,'' he said. ''For him, he can do this just jogging.''
Asked what he knew of Australian distance running, Wanjiru spoke of Rob de Castella, Steve Moneghetti and Craig Mottram, but not of Birmingham -- the man who made the 5000m World Championships final in August, finished third in this event last year and goes into the race in career-best form. Birmingham certainly knows about him.
''He is an amazing athlete,'' the Australian said yesterday. For him the task will be simple: stay with Wanjiru for as long as possible.
Wanjiru also offers something else -- he is the first truly global citizen among the African distance kings. His story began like most of them: raised in a poor village in rural Kenya he ran because he had no other way of getting around. Early attempts to join training squads were shortlived because his family simply could not afford it. He left school during the seventh grade.
Then his life changed. Spotted by a Japanese coach living in Nairobi he was offered a full scholarship to one of Japan's top sports high schools. There he spent his teenage years, adding Japanese technique and sports science to the natural gifts with which he was born.
It turned out to be a fearsome combination.
Ask his what he likes most about Japanese culture and it is not the food, the music or the consumer wonderland that is Tokyo. ''I like being able to run on tarmac,'' he said.
The Beijing Olympics, judged by many - including Moneghetti - as the finest run ever, was just Wanjiru's third marathon.
The world is still finding out how good he might be. And it will cost not a single cent to watch him run and attack a world record on the streets of Melbourne tomorrow.
ShareThis