Gerard Van de Veen, Volare Sports Manager, during an interview in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County on December 03, 2024. Gerard has retired from management and headed back to his home country in Netherlands, leaving the job to his two daughters. They have camps in Kericho, Kapsabet, Kapkitony and Iten.
The influence of Dutch Athletics manager Gerard Van de Veen, who retired in December, will continue to be felt in Kenya for a long time.
Van de Veen, who was a member of Volare Sports, officially announced his retirement last month at Iten Club, which is owned by retired athlete Lorna Kiplagat, in the presence of a horde of world-beating athletes.
The Volare Sports management house has over 100 elite athletes from Kenya and Ethiopia. Van de Veen’s most famous signings are no doubt Wilson Kipsang and Dennis Kimetto.
Kipsang broke the world marathon record at the Berlin Marathon in 2013 with a time of 2:03:23, lowering the previous record of 2:03:38 owned by fellow Kenyan Patrick Makau by 15 seconds.
In 2012, Kimetto ran the fastest 25km in 1:11:18 at the BIG 25 Berlin. It took 10 years for that time to be shattered, by the great Eliud Kipchoge, who ran 10 seconds faster, 1:11:08, at the 2022 Berlin Marathon.
Kimetto would break Kipsang’s world record in 2013 with a stunning time of 2:02:57 at the 2014 Berlin Marathon.
The record has since been broken thrice with the current mark standing at 2:00:35, broken by the late Kelvin Kiptum in 2023.
Another illustrious marathon runner that Van de Veen managed was Geoffrey Mutai, who ran the fastest marathon time then of 2:03.02 at the 2010 Boston Marathon. That record could however not be ratified as the Boston course did not meet the criteria to be certified by World Athletics.
Van de Veen said he met Mutai after the Kenyan finished second at the Kass Marathon in 2007 and immediately took him after recognizing his potential.
So, does he identify runners he feels are potential world record breakers?
“When you start with an athlete, you never know what he or she is able to do but I’m glad the athletes I have worked with have become dominant and won many victories in international races,” he replied coyly.
“Of course, athletes are not robots but we always try to support them to the fullest and when they have peace of mind, they can train well and in the end get good results which is also an advantage to the management,” he said.
“You can’t be a world-class manager if you don’t have world-class athletes,” he offered.
He added that he has always been transparent with his athletes revealing the exact prize money on offer and all their races. He said that it is really important because it helps athletes to organize themselves.
The 73-year-old said that the motivation he had in his 20 years of managing athletes with Volare Sports was to see little-known runners progress to conquer the world.
“I must admit that working with Kenyans has always motivated me to continue working hard,” said Van de Veen.
The Dutchman has handed his management duties to his daughters Hannah Biwott Van de Veen and Marieke Van de Veen.
Having overcome a challenging medical journey that included heart surgery and a battle with prostate cancer, Van de Veen views his life through a lens of gratitude and resilience after a long journey of recovery.
In 2019, he had a minor surgery on his shoulder and that is when it was discovered he also had a heart problem that required an operation which he terms a tough one after he was forced to stay in the hospital for three weeks.
“I stayed in the hospital far longer than I expected and it was not easy, but I’m happy because I managed to recover. Today I'm in Kenya just to meet my athletes during the farewell party,” he said two weeks ago in Iten.
He said doping was the biggest challenge facing Kenyan athletics.
“I always urge my athletes to run clean. I was discussing with another athletics manager about how we no longer celebrate the wins because the athletes may be caught and it ruins the name of the country and management too,” he said.
He paid tribute to Athletics Kenya and the embassies in Kenya for the good relationship they had together ensuring athletes travelled smoothly across the world for competitions.
