By Omulo Okoth in London

Some people want to call it miscommunication. Others have termed it plain scandal. The fact that Wilson Kiprop, the winner of Kenyan 10,000m trials in Oregon, USA, in June, was injured all along as the team camped in Nairobi for the Olympic Games has stirred a hornet’s nest.

Why we cannot get it right in this event in which we have not won a gold since 1968 in New Mexico when Naftali Temu triumphed is very frustrating.

And now that Mo Farah, who won the event on Saturday night, trains in Iten, is even more frustrating.

What does he get right, but which seems to elude us?

Athletics Kenya, “very concerned about this anomaly,” took the trials to the United States to pick the best athletes, although some observers thought it was a marketing coup for Kenya’s kit sponsors Nike and organisers of the Prefontaine Diamond Classic meeting.

A public outcry, led by former top athletes like Moses Tanui and Paul Tergat, is what made AK to scale it down from men’s and women’s trials to Oregon to men’s only trials. Yet, the women have done better after their trials at Kasarani on June 18. At least they won silver (Sally Kipyego) and bronze (Vivian Cheruiyot).

“Our men (10,000m team) have performed worse than recent Olympics, even with trials in Oregon,” said an official of another sport in London.

Tergat’s silver in Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000 was the closest we came to reclaiming the elusive gold medal. In Athens, Boniface Kiprop was fourth, John C Korir sixth and Moses Mosop seventh.

In Beijing, Micah Kogo won the bronze, while Moses Masai finished fourth, although both had the same time (27:04.11). Now, with the trials in low altitude Oregon, described by athletics chiefs as the best suited for the Olympics, less favourite Bedan Karoki was the best at fifth, with Masai 12th after Kiprop fell out with an injury his team mates disclosed to have started weeks before in Nairobi. Why couldn’t he replaced?

David Okeyo, Athletics Kenya Secretary general, confessed ignorance of the injury. Whether he feigned ignorance is hard to tell.

“That was a matter for the team management to deal with, not AK,” said Okeyo. “The boys tried their best and we are happy because the times were very good,” said Okeyo at the women’s marathon starting point at The Mall.

Okeyo appealed to Kenyans to give athletes here time as they will win medals anyway. “We still have a very good team here,” he said.

National head coach Julius Kirwa had promised the team would win more than 10 gold medals and thrice total medals.

Although Masai explained that the pace was slow hence the bad performance, Farah was just in a superlative form. He hid somewhere between the leaders and mid-runners and was hardly noticed until the 23rd lap when he shot to the front. At that point, Masai and Karoki had exchanged the lead between themselves for seven laps.

Even Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, twice champion in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, who was being touted as a possible winner to go into Olympic legends books, could do nothing about Farah’s superlative performance.

In fact, his younger brother Tariku was a better runner on the day. With two laps to go, Farah took the fight to Karoki and Tariku as Masai failed to react.

At the bell, Karoki pushed hard towards the corner but Farah caught up and charged upfront with the two Ethiopians following. Towards the final bend, Karoki lost it, leaving the field to Farah to elicit a thunderous applause from the home fans who again thronged the 80,000-seater Olympic Stadium.

The Kenyans were gracious in defeat. “I am going for marathon now. I won’t even go for 10,000m in (next year’s World Championships) Moscow. It’s time to move on,” said Masai.

Karoki was happy with his fifth place, only confessing that the race was tougher for him.