Learning
Fast about the Winning Game
Phil
Minshull interviews Bernard Lagat, for the IAAF
14 June
2002 - Bernard Lagat, the second fastest man in the world in the 1500m, is not like too
many other Kenyan runners. Most of his compatriots might be content to occasionally glance
at the livestock prices in the Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation, but Lagat is more likely to
be found logged into the web pages of the Financial Times or Wall Street Journal checking
out the stocks of his current favourite tip, bio-technology companies.
"I like to keep a diverse portfolio of investments," says Lagat, who openly admits that the money he earns on the Grand Prix circuit is spent on more esoteric things than most of his compatriots contemplate.
Hailing from Kaptel, in the Nandi district, which is home to many of Kenya's top runners, Lagat concentrated more on his school work than on training sessions while a teenager.
However, his grades were good enough to gain him entrance to the elite Jomo Kenyatta University, where places are awarded strictly on academic merit, and his potential caught the eye of a well-known Kenyan coach, Nganga Ngata. In turn, Ngata recommended him to Washington State University - the alma mater of many other Kenyans such as former world record holders Henry Rono and Samson Kimobwa - and Lagat transferred there in September 1996.
At WSU, Lagat prospered both as an athlete and in the classroom, graduating two years ago with a degree in the tough double discipline of Management Information Systems and Decision Science, as well as picking up three coveted NCAA titles during his time at the university. Since then, Lagat - Kip to his friends, a diminutive of his middle name Kipchirchir - has become the second fastest man ever over 1500m and acquired an Olympic bronze and an IAAF World Championship silver medal.
WSU coach Li has worked with Lagat since he started studying in the United States six years ago and the 27 year-old runner still returns every winter to spend six months of the year in the snowy north western American town of Pullman under Li's tutelage.
Li revealed that they have been working hard and it could be a very different Lagat who steps on the track in Europe this summer. "He's such a late bloomer and still relatively inexperienced when it comes to racing at the highest level. There's still a lot of room for improvement" added Li.
To fulfill his aim, Lagat has his eyes set on this summer's Commonwealth Games for his second major international title, after taking the Universiade 1500 gold medal in 1999, but is doing it in a way that breaks more stereotypes.
"I usually do no more than 60 miles a week, little more than eight miles a day maximum, when I am building up my base of stamina during November and December. I know there are many more runners that run many more miles, but this works for me. I have not had any injury worries for several years and so I've found a formula that works, although the sessions I do are often quite intense.
"I'm a firm believer in speed related to endurance and not doing what Americans often call 'junk miles'," explained Lagat calmly. "
Despite the deluge of world and Olympic gold medals that have been hung around Kenyan necks - from Kip Keino in the 1960s to Ngeny - no Kenyan has ever been awarded one of the IAAF's blue plaque for a world record at 1500 or the mile.
"I know there is the debate about whether to have paced races or just 'pure' races, and I think there is a place for both types on the circuit. However, many crowds do want to see world record attempts. At such a meeting I'd like to have a go at the 1500 mark, and as a Kenyan who is proud of his country, I can't think of any greater motivation than the fact that I'd be trying to achieve something that no other Kenyan has ever done," admits Lagat.