East African runners set the pace By Scientific American, adapted by Newsela staff on 08.15.16 Word Count 942 Level 1200L

Kenya's Asbel Kiprop (center) heads for the finish line to win the men's 1500-meter final at the Championships in the Luzhniki stadium in , Russia, August 18, 2013. AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus

When the starting gun fires at the Olympic track in , there is little doubt who will lead the distance races. In the men’s 1,500 meters, Asbel Kiprop will be up front. In the women’s 5,000 meters Almaz Ayana will run away, and she may also take the 10,000 meters. In the Helah Kiprop will push the women whereas will be the one to watch among the men. In the men’s 800 meters, David Rudisha will likely hold his title and maybe break his own world record.

Most of these races will be dominated by runners from east Africa —namely from and Ethiopia, with a few runners from Eritrea and maybe a Ugandan also standing out. Mo Farah, currently at the top of the ranking for 10,000 meters, was born in Somalia and raised in the United Kingdom, and now trains in the U.S. , who just won the U.S. 5,000-meter Olympic qualifier - at age 41 - is Kenyan-American.

East African runners have dominated for the two decades since Kenyans started winning in the mid-1990s, followed by Ethiopians shortly thereafter. This has led to soul-searching on the part of former distance powers like the U.S. and U.K. Yet reasons for that dominance remain hotly debated, and science has offered little clear information about it.

Many Factors Contribute To Their Success

The reigning theory in the West is that runners from eastern Africa have some evolutionary advantage over runners from other backgrounds. Because so many of the elite runners come from the Oromo ethnic group in Ethiopia and the Kalenjin tribes in Kenya, it is assumed these groups must have adaptations or environments that make them faster. Maybe their ancestors “persistence hunted,” chasing animals until they tired and could be easily killed. It could be their longer, thinner legs or their increased lung capacity from living at relatively high altitudes. In an attempt to find answers, researchers have collected DNA from across the region. Yannis Pitsiladis, a sports physiologist and geneticist from the University of Brighton in England, recently said, “We know genes are important. We just don’t know which ones they are.”

Another factor that has been largely overlooked, however, is the “running cultures” that have evolved in specific places in Ethiopia and Kenya. One is the poor Ethiopian town of Bekoji, which has about 16,000 people and is a few hours outside the capital of . In recent years it has produced 10 Olympic gold medals, 15 world records and 34 World Championship gold medals, according to British runner and writer Declan Murray, whose book about Bekoji will be published in 2017.

This mountain town's success rate is stunning. Countless other towns in the region have similar ethnic backgrounds, genetic makeup, economies and environments but have not produced a single elite runner.

Coach Helps Develop Local Talent

At the center of the town’s success is a coach named Sentayehu Eshetu, who has been fostering local running talent for over 30 years. One of his first stars was , who took the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Since then Sentayehu has drawn more runners to his program. Every day at 6 a.m. the hills around Bekoji are filled with hundreds of runners. Sentayehu’s runners brought home five Olympic medals from Athens in 2004, four from in 2008 and four more from in 2012.

Ethiopia’s running culture started with a trailblazer whose early success seemed to create a crop of young people who wanted to follow in his footsteps. Adebe Bikila is still a folk hero today for winning the 1960 Olympic Marathon in bare feet. “When you ask people why they got involved in running, it’s because they see these people on TV or they heard it on the radio,” says Malcolm Anderson. He is an athletics agent and founder of Moyo Sports, a management agency with runners from Kenya, Ethiopia and the U.K.

Town Attracts Some Of The Top Athletes

The small town of has seen results similar to Bekoji's. Culturally, Iten functions in a way that is similar to Bekoji, attracting a huge pool of talent while fostering competition and training. Every day, young runners arrive in Iten from across the region.

If they are lucky — and fast — they will be accepted into a training camp, and if they are luckier still, they will be signed by an agent for training and racing abroad. Almost all of them will see some of their fellow athletes rise to the world stage.

Knowing someone who does something can be more powerful than hearing about someone who does it.

Language Barriers Can Affect Training

For several generations, athletic training knowledge has accumulated in Kalenjin training camps. Benoit Gaudin of the Department of Sport Sciences at Addis Ababa University interviewed elite non-Kalenjin runners, asking them how they gained their positions. They reported that joining a training camp is difficult if you are not Kalenjin.

Those who succeed do so by basically becoming Kalenjin. “Either they learn the language or they marry a Kalenjin girl or they have high-profile support inside the running community, and someone is helping them," Gaudin reported. "Otherwise, it’s very difficult, because they have their own specific language even within the Kalenjin group. For example, you can train with them today but you don’t know where the next training is tomorrow, because when it comes time to give this key information, they switch languages.

Gaudin says they are protecting their group. He says this is very interesting because "it is ethnicity, but it has nothing to do with genetics.” Quiz

1 Read the selection from the section "Language Barriers Can Affect Training."

Those who succeed do so by basically becoming Kalenjin.

Which of the following can be inferred from the selection?

(A) People who want to join the running camp must change their ethnicity to Kalenjin.

(B) Becoming familiar with Kalenjin culture helps a runner thrive at the running camp.

(C) Someone who is not Kalenjin will not be able to join the running camp.

(D) Only people who speak the local language will be able to become great runners.

2 Read the statement.

Having a community of great runners has helped East Africa develop more runners.

Which sentence from the article BEST supports the statement?

(A) Countless other towns in the region have similar ethnic backgrounds, genetic makeup, economies and environments but have not produced a single elite runner.

(B) If they are lucky — and fast — they will be accepted into a training camp, and if they are luckier still, they will be signed by an agent for training and racing abroad.

(C) Knowing someone who does something can be more powerful than hearing about someone who does it.

(D) He says this is very interesting because "it is ethnicity, but it has nothing to do with genetics.”

3 Which of the following sentences from the article BEST develops a central idea?

(A) When the starting gun fires at the Olympic track in Rio de Janeiro, there is little doubt who will lead the distance races.

(B) Yet reasons for that dominance remain hotly debated, and science has offered little clear information about it.

(C) In an attempt to find answers, researchers have collected DNA from across the region.

(D) At the center of the town’s success is a coach named Sentayehu Eshetu, who has been fostering local running talent for over 30 years.

4 Read the sentence from the section "Many Factors Contribute To Their Success."

Maybe their ancestors “persistence hunted,” chasing animals until they tired and could be easily killed.

Does this sentence support the main idea of the article? Why or why not?

(A) Yes, because it shows that East Africans are great runners due to genetics and DNA makeup.

(B) Yes, because it emphasizes the importance of East African ancestry in developing great runners.

(C) No, because it does not explain the importance of the town of Bekoji and the how the people from there become well-known runners.

(D) No, because it does not account for the cultural factors in East African running.