Peerless Vivian seeks more glory in New York today

(L-R) Kenya's Vivian Cheruiyot, Mary Keitany and Gladys Cherono pose during a photocall for the London Women's Marathon elite athletes outside Tower Bridge, in central London on April 18, 2018, ahead of the upcoming London marathon. / AFP PHOTO

Such is the rich talent possessed by Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot that 21 years ago, the then teenager was denied a chance to compete for her country at the 1997 IAAF World Cross Country Championships for, get this, being under age.

The following year, she had to repeat Standard 5 at Chemwabul Primary School in Keiyo but that did little to stop her from breaking into the Kenyan team for the 1998 World Cross in Marrakesh, Morocco where she finished fifth in the 6km junior race.

That was the birth of the longest-running professional athletics career in the country and as Vivian aims at adding the New York Marathon title to her London crown she won in April this year.

The ‘Pocket Rocket’ as the petite athlete who competes at only 38kg is affectionately known will battle compatriot and three-time winner at the ‘Big Apple’, Mary Keitany, who is still smarting from losing her crown last year to American Shalane Flanagan.

“I run on my own as Vivian. It will be done with my own body, my own race,” she said ahead of her quest to win her second World Marathon Majors race after her breakthrough in London.

Vivian knows very well that when she runs her best it usually results in gold.

That she will line-up for the start of the classic race run in a championship style course is staggering, considering her career has spanned well over two decades and having figured out the marathon, there are a few good years left in the legs of the Olympic women 5000m who is 35.

The mother of one, son Allan Kiprono, who proudly posed with the captain of the direct Kenya Airways flight that took their family to New York, remains the most decorated female athlete in the country’s history.

It took three attempts for Vivian to finally crack the marathon and when she did it, she trounced a field that had arguably the three greatest female distance runners in Keitany and familiar foe Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba.

Keitany and Tirunesh started aggressively in pursuit of Paula Radcliffe’s mark in conditions which Keitany later reflected were not conducive for such exploits but Vivian – unlike last year when she described herself as “totally kaput in the last half” – still had plenty in reserve at the corresponding checkpoint in 1:08:56, one minute slower than in her debut last year.

But not only was Vivian on course to run a big lifetime best, she was still within striking distance if either of the leaders faltered. They both did. She caught Tirunesh in the 19th mile before reeling in Keitany four miles later.

This performance was Vivian’s arrival into the big-time at the distance, moving to fourth on the world all-time list with 2:18:31.

It was a master class in strategy and pace judgement and a performance respectful of both the conditions and the distance.

Last year at the same event, she finished fourth in 2:23:50 on her debut, a commendable showing considering it was her debut before she later went on to win the Frankfurt where she ran 2:23:35 in cold and windy conditions that are not ideal for the four-time track world champion.

From the onset, Cheruiyot was bound for greatness. Having made her Team Kenya debut in 1998, it only took her two years to be crowned a world champion for the first time when she won the junior race at the Villamoura World Cross in Portugal.

As a testament of her longevity, among her teammates in that squad is retired great, Paul Tergat, who had won five successive World Cross senior titles coming to Villamoura only to be denied history in Portugal when he took bronze.

Apart from Tergat, Vivian has competed in the same Kenyan teams with retired and active greats spanning Edith Masai, Catherine Ndereba, Janeth Jepkosgei, Pamela Jelimo, David Rudisha and Eliud Kipchoge among others. In 2001, her final primary school year, Vivian failed to hold on to her World Cross Country title in Ostend, finishing fifth, but more than made up for it by winning the African Junior 5000m title in Réduit, Mauritius.

Vivian enrolled at Sing’ore Girls’ High School, an institution famed for its athletics prowess, for her secondary education in 2002.

As a first year student at Sing’ore (the same school that produced Sylvia Kibet) Cheruiyot won junior women’s bronze at the World Cross in Dublin.

She was then crowned Kenya’s 5000m junior champion (15:49.7), earning her a berth in the national team for the World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica. There she clocked 15:56.04 for bronze.

During school holidays, Cheruiyot featured in two European races, in the Asics meeting in Helsinki, where she finished 10th in the 3000m (9:28.44) and at the Raiffeisen meeting in Germany, where she also finished 10th (9:21.94).

Having missed the Paris 2003 Worlds and Athens 2004 Olympics, she opted to take a sabbatical from the sport in 2005 to focus on her O-Level examinations- Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education.

She did not register much success until the 2007 Worlds in Osaka, Japan when she chased the feared Meseret Defar of Ethiopia to the line, taking silver in 14:58.50.

“That is the time I realised I can get close to the Ethiopians. It gave me the belief that next time, our turn will come and when I returned home, I discussed with my husband and coach on how to develop a strong kick while remaining good in lapping,” she remarked at the time.

That is the performance that inspired Cheruiyot to explode to the scene as the true scale of her talent came to the fore.

A fifth finish at the Beijing 2008 Olympics was not exactly how she hoped her next big event would pan out but finally at the 2009 Worlds in Berlin, her big moment arrived.

In the Berlin women 5000m final on August 22, Vivian, who had only beaten Defar once (Brussels, September 2008) in their previous 11 meetings, stunned the equally diminutive Ethiopian with a 14:57.97 run characterised by an explosive finishing kick in the last 200m after she went outside of the Osaka champion who had taken the inner lane.

A shocked Defar settled for bronze after Cheruiyot’s team mate, Sylvia Kibet, stole in for silver at the line.

“I realised she always waited until the last 400m to kick past me and win. This time, I trained for speed especially in the last 200m,” Vivian said after flooring her arch-rival who remains a great personal friend.

 

Africa champion

At the 2010 Africa Athletics Championships in Nairobi, she gave home fans the performance they craved when she stormed to gold in the 5000m final, when charged by the crowd, Cheruiyot handed Defar the most comprehensive defeat in taking the title in 16:18.72.

Not done, she checked in three days before her race at the October Delhi Commonwealth Games and delivered a 15:55.12 performance to lead team mates Kibet (15:55.61) and Iness Chenonge (16:02.47) to a clean medal sweep, capping a memorable year.

The next year, Vivian simply exploded, becoming the first and the only Kenyan history to be crowned a double world champion when she stormed to the 5000m and 10000m gold medals at Daegu 2011 having won her first senior World Cross senior crown in Punta Umbria, Spain.

On the first track final of the World Championships programme in Daegu on August 27, Cheruiyot led her country to the improbable 1-2-3-4 finish in the women 10,000m in 30:48.98.

Six days later, she took to the Daegu Stadium track for her more familiar 5,000m and the outcome was the same, a scarcely believable 58.6 last-lap doing the trick as once again, Kibet played her bridesmaid.

Her ambition to win the Olympics double at London 2012 landed her bronze in 10,000m before Defar out sprinted her in the 5000m for silver.

“I sat down with my husband (Moses Kiplagat) and manager (Ricky Simms) and we made a plan to have a baby and then be back at full fitness in time for the 2016 Olympic Games,” she said, with Allan coming to the world in October 2013.

She skipped most of the 2014 season, returning to action in 2015 where she lined up at the Bird’s nest and with a nagging Achilles tendon injury.

She therefore played safe, staying tucked in behind the leaders until the final lap, where she powered away to win her fourth World track title in 31:41.31 for victory in the 10,000m.

Returning home, Cheruiyot planned on a final assault for an Olympic title on the track and when she arrived at Rio, her dream got off to a disappointing start when Almaz Ayana, the newest Ethiopia female running juggernaut took gold in the 10,000m in a world record.

Crushed, Vivian turned her attention to the shorter 5000m where she finally got her hands on the elusive gold.