2:11:53? Forget about beating this world record in Chicago, Rosa concedes

Traders are assembling their displays as Friday is market day and the town will soon be a hive of movement.

An elderly, holidaying couple is settling for breakfast on the terrace of the three-star Ambra Hotel, their poodle beside them surveying the surroundings as a tourist boat docks to pick another group of holiday makers for the 10 Euro (Sh1,500), one-and-a-half-hour trip around Lake Iseo.

Across the pier, on the landing stage overlooking the mountains across the lake, is a monument of Gabriele Rosa (1812-1897), featuring a buste of the Italian “freedom fighter” celebrated for keeping the Austrians at bay in the north.

The scenic port of Iseo also boasts the small but historic Santa Maria del Mercato church that is said to date back to the 14th century.

“The famous Gabriele Rosa, whose monument you saw, is from my family line…. But I don’t think it was a good idea for my father to name me Gabriele Rosa… because it put too much pressure on me, and pushed me to work very hard,” Dr Rosa, athletics manager, coach and sports medic, tells me during this interview at his home in Iseo, a region quite famous for its wine making.

Just a short drive from Dr Rosa’s home is the Berlucchi winery, famous the world over for its Franciacorta sparkling wine.

Little wonder the 82-year-old loves his wine, besides having admiration for the other finer things in life including classical music and art.

The ‘Beethoven e la sifonia’ collection, that is prominently placed on his crowded table alongside a collection of paintings, some from Kenyan painters, further confirms this.

We are discussing Kenya’s hopes of a double at Sunday’s Chicago Marathon where one of Dr Rosa’s athletes - defending champion Ruth Chepng’etich – will be lining up to defend her title.

The frontrunner in the men’s race is another Kenyan, Kelvin Kiptum, the second fastest marathon runner of all time after none other than the G.O.A.T., Eliud Kipchoge.

Kiptum’s personal best time of two hours, one minute and 25 seconds – clocked in April this year in London – is just 16 seconds outside Kipchoge’s 2:01:09 world record conjured up in Berlin last year.

Chepng’etich also came agonisingly close to breaking compatriot Brigid Kosgei’s women’s world record in Chicago last year, her winning time of two hours, 14 minutes and 18 seconds just 14 seconds shy of Kosgei’s mark set in 2019.

Read: Kiptum leads Kenyan charge in Chicago marathon

But just last month on the flat streets of Berlin, Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa obliterated that record, running a jaw-dropping 2:11:53.

Kosgei is also in Dr Rosa’s Rosa Associati management stable, and ceding the fastest time to Ethiopian has clearly troubled the Italian quite a bit.

In fact, immediately after Assefa's Berlin Run, Rosa Associati abandoned their plans to have Chepng’etich attack the world record in Chicago on Sunday.

“It’s not possible (to beat 2:11:53),” the silver-haired Italian legend was categorical during our interview.

“The time that was run in Berlin is too fast. Before the 2:11:53 result, Ruth was going to try to beat the previous record (2:14:04) in Chicago, but now it’s impossible…

“The athlete from Ethiopia (Assefa) is very fast… But I’m happy anyway because it’s a good opportunity for one of my athletes (Chepng’etich) to fight for victory in Chicago,” he added, in mitigation, frustration etched all over his face.

Shoe technology is fast developing and Assefa won last month’s world record race in Berlin running in the new Adidas Adios Pro EVO 1 shoe, the same worn by second-placed Kenyan Sheila Chepkirui, while the men’s winner Eliud Kipchoge ran in the Nike Alphafly 3 Prototype.

The new Adidas Adios Pro EVO 1 shoe is selling at an astonishing launch retail price of $500 a pair, or just about Sh74,000!

Such is the demand that some outlets are making the 138-gramme, single-use shoe available at, can you believe this, a resale price of over $1,000 (over Sh150,000).

Top Kenyan athletes, including Olympic marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir and Benson Kipruto, a winner of the Boston and Chicago marathons, were involved in testing the Adidas Adios Pro EVO 1 in its research and development phases with further work done at Adidas’ Herzogenaurach headquarters in Germany.

German marathon champion Amanal Petros and Assefa were also consulted by the brand with the three stripes.

“This is the lightest racing shoe I have ever worn and the feeling of running in them is an incredible experience – like nothing I’ve felt before. They enable me to put my full focus on the race, which is exactly what you want as an athlete,” Assefa said before her record run in Berlin.

Dr Rosa is not averse to the allure of speed and wonders of technology.

In fact, his latest toy is an Audi RS Q8 Sport, a high-performance four-litre, 591bhp, 4,000cc twin-turbo V8 machine that can power from zero to 100 kilometres per hour in just 3.8 seconds.

With a top speed of 320kph, the eight-speed Audi RS Q8 Sport may, in distance running terms, mirror the Adidas Adios Pro EVO 1.

Read: Shoes, pacesetting in focus in Chicago Marathon

But notwithstanding his love for speed and all, Dr Rosa wants the development of shoe technology reined in and reverted to factory settings.

“The (new technology) shoe is not good news,” he quips.

“Every year the shoe companies produce new shoes and we don’t know who is the best now.

“While breaking the world record, Assefa was using new shoes, running on a fast (Berlin) course. The new shoes now force other athletes to change their training and not only focus on speed and endurance, but also on power to try and catch up.

“That’s why my opinion is we need to go back to the old shoes.”

Dr Rosa - who spends time away from his Brescia sports medicine clinic looking after his horses and domestic livestock at a stable near the Lombardian city of Bergamo - believes the future success of Kenyan athletics will now rely heavily on school talent development programmes to nurture a fresh crop of world beaters.

He feels Kenya’s struggle to dominate distance running needs a long-term solution.

The Italian is credited with having kick-started Kenya’s dominance in the marathon, taking under his wings legends Paul Tergat and Moses Tanui in 1992 and also launching the now three-decades-old Discovery Kenya series of cross country and road races.

The list of his Kenyan athletes reads like the who’s who among the country’s legends, Olympic champions Nancy Jebet Langat, the late Samuel Wanjiru, two-time New York City Marathon winner Margaret Okayo, Stanley Biwott, Martin Lel, new sensation Beatrice Chebet…

Uganda’s sensation Jacob Kiplimo and Africa’s youngest sprints sensation, Bostwana’s Letsile Tebogo are also under the Rosa Associati management.

“We would like to start again from the high school level,” he explains.

“In Kenya now we have a little problem and we must produce new athletes and these new athletes will come from the schools.

“In women’s running, Kenya is still strong but the men are not very strong. In the last World Athletics Championships (in Budapest), the men didn’t win any gold medals.

“Kenya also once dominated the steeplechase for 20 to 30 years but now the country is not among the top two.

“We must do something for Kenya, and I’m ready to co-operate in this regard.”

Dr Rosa is already working on analysing the distance running potential of Maasai athletes with half a dozen trialists from Laikipia currently based at his Kaptagat camp for observation.

“(Kelvin) Kiptum is the only new talent in Kenyan men’s marathon running and we need new athletes who will be able to compete from the 800m to the 10,000m.

“Because in the 1,500m and 5,000m we have the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen who is just 23 and who will be around for a while.

“In the 10,000m, the Ugandan athletes are fast finishers and Kenyan athletes are not able to cope right now.

“My priority is to go to the schools and get a group of young, strong athletes.”

Although he believes Sunday’s Chicago marathon will not clock a world record time for the women, he adds that former world record holder Kosgei is capable of bouncing back in future.

“Brigid can run 2:12, but we must be sure she’s injury-free.

“When Paula Radcliffe ran 2:15, people thought that record would be impossible to beat, but in Chicago (in 2019), Brigid ran 2:14… the (world record) progression is impressive and difficult to understand.”

He also believes that distance running training should be boosted outside the traditional North Rift staple.

“We don’t have training camps in many areas with potential like Machakos, Kisii, Mt Elgon, Taita and Kericho.

“My company doesn’t have camps in these areas but we must now try to be more involved.

“Kenya is a big country and is capable of producing talent and through the schools it will be possible to get good, young athletes.

“This is my dream for Kenya because I have worked in Kenya for 33 years now and Kenya must be back as a force in distance running – good luck Kenya!,” he concluded the interview.

But not before stressing the need to fight doping in athletics, especially with his company in the past having borne the brunt of having its marquee athletes flagged and banned for flouting anti-doping rules.

Sports medicine runs through the Rosa family, Dr Rosa’s two sons – Federico and Ermes – both having studied sports medicine in Brescia.

And while Federico does most of the athlete management, Ermes is the Head of Medical at Serie B football side Brescia Calcio.

Both honed their medical skills at Dr Rosa’s sports medicine clinic, aptly named Marathon Medical Centre, in downtown Brescia.

The medical centre was one of Italy’s first specialist sports medicine clinics.

While Federico travelled to Chicago to ensure Chepng’etich is well psyched up for the race, Dr Rosa will follow Sunday’s competition from his Brescia home, before probably heading to the nearby Bruno’s Restaurant for some ‘grigliata di carne’ (grilled meat) which he will push down with a Berlucchi Franciacorta.

Depending on the result of the women’s race.

Should Chepng’etich do the unthinkable and beat 2:11:53, then the good old doctor’s choice of menu will have a celebratory touch with a single malt whiskey to boot and to toast grazie mille! (thank you!)

Wait a minute, don't they say that red meat goes well with red wine?

So perhaps "Dottore", as the Italians refer to Dr Rosa, could settle for a Cabernet Sauvignon instead.

So rudimentary is my knowledge of fine wines and gourmet dining that I'd settle for a gin and tonic!

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