Most athletes attending the 3rd World Youth Championships have little if any international experience. Not so with Kenya’s Augustine Choge.
The articulate 17 year old represented his country in the junior race at the World Cross Country Championships last March and has since earned a regular place
in Kenya’s renowned specialised training camps.
“I ran in Lausanne and was not so bad. I tried. I was fourth,” he says. “And also I was selected by my country to run the East African Youth Championships which were held in Ethiopia so I ran 800m, 1500 and 3000m I will only run the 3000m here.”
What he neglects to tell you is the fact he won all three events in Addis Ababa’s thin air recording times of 1:49.7, 3:43.7 and 8:04.1 - an astounding triple especially since it was achieved against the home country’s best athletes. He also won the Kenyan National Secondary Schools 3000m title in June recording a personal best of 7:57.1.
Given the fact his fastest times have all been achieved at altitudes of more than 1700 metres there is reason to believe we could witness a lowering of the championship record - currently 7:55.82 - held by Ethiopia’s Markos Geneti. The Kenyan team officials admit they are expecting something
special from Choge but he is more placid.
“I am praying, God wish, that I run something below 7:53,” he says smiling. “Something below that!”
The team arrived in Sherbrooke last Saturday after a long trip from Nairobi that included eight hours spent at London’s Heathrow Airport. Training in the early morning and in the evening they have gradually worked out the after effects of travel although they are troubled by the heat and humidity they have encountered in Canada.
Prior to their journey the 18 member youth team gathered for a two week training camp in the Great Rift Valley region where most of them live. Spartan conditions and early morning sessions at sunrise traditionally mark these camps but if there was any undue hardship Choge didn’t experience it. Visits to the camp by elite athletes such as five time world cross country champion Paul Tergat served to motivate the youngsters as they set off to represent their country.
“The Kenyan federation organised a good place for training with some valleys and hills and we used the track for training and we had a special place to live,” he reveals. “The training was very good and the Kenyan AAA's had planned they had very good organisation.”
Choge is a keen high school student at Kabakwet School. He and his six sisters and four brothers used to live near St Patrick’s School where Brother Colm O’Connell, the Irish priest responsible for developing numerous Olympic champions, coached for so many years. Brother O’Connell encouraged him to pursue both academics and athletics and the lesson has not been lost.
“I like school in fact I am praying that one day when I finish school I hope to go train a university or college and further my studies because I know that athletics alone is not going to help somebody,” he reveals. “Maybe you have to have college so you know how to manage your things because athletics is not the only career you should depend on. Maybe you will get an injury and then it is the end of your career. So you must have something to rely on after athletics.”
He is reminded that many U.S. university coaches will be present during these world youth championships. Many of the St. Patrick School graduates have attended U.S. colleges and gone on to represent Kenya at the Olympics. Choge has obviously thought about this scenario.
“Brother Colm told me "you know if you run well I have several friends in the United States and maybe you can get a scholarship" I told him I would try my best,” he admits.
