Kipketer: Don't pressure young athletes

BY DANIA BOGLE Observer staff reporter

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

WHILE it's important for athletes to get an early start, pressuring young athletes could cause burn-out, warns former 800m World Champion Wilson Kipketer.

Kipketer, who was in the island for last weekend's Gibson Relays at the National Stadium, is a consultant with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) High Performance Training Centre.

"If we start when they're still young, training them very hard will kill them before they grow up," the Kenyan-born Danish runner stated.

"They never get the maturity to understand the hardship of training, so we need to protect them from that and build them up slowly."

It has been said that Jamaican high school athletes are overworked, with a long season which lasts from early January through June in some instances, while the athletes must peak for 'Champs', Carifta and again later in the year for the World Youth or World Junior Championships, which are held in July.

Kipketer, who won successive world titles in 1995, 1997 and 1999, said it was essential to look beyond highlighting only achievements on the international stage, but on the national and personal levels as well.

"If somebody is running 2:00.00 (over 800m) here and she can do 1:59.00, that is progress. We measure the results at the international level and not the national level, and if you are not a finalist in the Olympics or World Championships, you're not good enough, and that's too strong because we're killing the younger generation. We never give them a chance to try to show themselves what they can do when they are grown up," he told the Observer.

Kipketer was the speaker for the Gibson 'Technical Corner' at GC Foster College last Thursday in a session specially geared towards local middle-distance coaches.

"The moment we show our athletes that we care about them and we're cheering them on it makes a difference," he suggested as a way of encouraging young athletes to specialise in middle-distance events.

The Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) has been on a concentrated drive towards broadening the scope of local athletics to one not only focused on the sprint events, but also on middle-distance running.

Kipketer said the situation was the reverse in Kenya where athletes were more inclined to specialise in middle and long-distance events, and not sprints.

"We need to break this barrier because it's easier now for Kenyans to run long distances than sprints, and in Jamaica it's easier to do the sprints, even for the coaches," he said.

He told the Observer that the IAAF was on a drive to help young athletes to maximise their potential.

"They (IAAF) now provide more opportunities for young kids to go to the training centres and get some help so they can really show their talent," he said.

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Kipketer: Don't pressure young athletes