Vivian Cheruiyot celebrates winning the women's 5000m at the World Athletics Final (© Getty Images)
On the 15 June this year at the ExxonMobil Bislett Games - IAAF Golden League - in Oslo, Norway Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar demolished her own 5000m World record with a time of 14:16.63. But going largely unnoticed was the runner-up Vivian Cheruiyot who lowered the Kenyan national record to 14:22.59 to finish just six seconds behind the peerless Ethiopian and also inside the old World record (14:24.43).
“Before Oslo, I stayed in London for almost two months and trained well,” says Cheruiyot who turned 24-year-old on 9 November. “My coach told me that I was in good shape and we thought that I could run under 14:30 in Oslo. Before the race we decided to go for it and stay with Meseret for as long as possible.”
The result was a confidence-booster going into the 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Osaka, Japan where Cheruiyot led a Kenyan three-piece juggernaut to finish just behind Defar and claim her first ever senior World championship medal.
“I went to Osaka to get the gold or silver medal,” said the former World Junior and World Youth bronze medallist. “I would have been disappointed with the bronze. I expected the race to be between Meseret and myself. When I look back at the race I was happy with the silver. I knew Meseret can run a fast last lap but I was also ready to run fast.”
After Osaka, Cheruiyot capped her improved season with wins in Rieti (3000m), Berlin (5000m), and at the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart (1st at 5000m and 2nd at 3000m) before another victory this time on the roads at the Great North Run 3km. It was the perfect finish to a breakthrough season in a career which had looked like it had stagnated after much early-career promise.
Fast takeoff
Born in the Keiyo district in the Kenyan part of the Great Rift Valley and raised in a large family of eight children, Cheruiyot discovered her talent and passion for the sport at an early age.
“I found that I had a talent from the beginning,” she says. “I started running at primary school when I was 12-years-old. In my first year, I won the Kenyan Primary Schools cross country and track championships.”
It did not take long for her to represent Kenya in international competition. Three years later, she made her international debut at a tender age of just 15 at the World Cross Country Championships in Marrakech, Morocco. “It was my first time to run the Kenyan World Cross Country trials and I made the team, eventually finishing 5th in the junior race,” she recalls.
She improved a year later to finish second, but the highlight of year was a surprise bronze for Kenya over the 5000m at the 7th All-African Games in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“It was only my second time to run abroad,” she says. “I was proud to be the youngest member of the Kenya team in South Africa.”
Slow transition
On her third attempt, she finally won the World Junior Cross Country gold in Vilamoura, Portugal in 2000 before becoming one of the youngest ever Kenyans to appear in an Olympic final when she competed in the final of the women’s 5000m in Sydney, Australia.
But after two further top five finishes (4th in 2001 and 3rd in 2002) in the junior race in the next two editions of the World Cross Country Championships, Cheruiyot’s progress did not go as planned for the next three years.
“As a junior Vivian had an exceptional competition record,” says her coach and manager Ricky Simms. “The transition to senior took a few years as she was still at school and unable to train or come to Europe very often.”
Her breakthrough came when she finished school in December 2005 and started training full time in January 2006. “I made good progress during the track season in 2006 and then another winter of training made me much stronger,” she says.
Improved 2007
Cheruiyot credits a revitalized training setup, divided between Kaptegat, Kenya and Teddington, England, as one of the main reasons for her breakthrough in 2007. “I spent much of the early part of 2007 training with Ricky in London and that helped me a lot,” she says. “Also I had good training partners, especially the World Junior Cross Country champion Linet Masai (junior world cross country champion), Veronica Nyaruai (World junior 3000m champion), and others.”
While she had boasted impeccable credentials over the cross country as a junior, Cheruiyot has failed to finish in the top five since turning senior. But she refutes suggestions that she is much more of a track star than a queen-in-the-making on mud.
“I think I am equally as good on the cross country as track,” she says. “I expected better performance in Mombasa this year, but I think I trained too hard in the weeks before the race and did not run well as a result.”
Edinburgh XC hopes
The affable 24-year old wants to prove her critics wrong when the World Cross Country Championships take place in Edinburgh, Scotland in March 2008. “The World Cross Country is in Edinburgh and I have been successful in Scotland before and would like to keep my good record,” she says. “No Kenyan woman has won the World Cross 8k race since 1994 so we are due a winner.”
But that is not the only plan Cheruiyot has for the winter season at the turn of the year. “I am also considering the World Indoors (in Valencia) and have asked Athletics Kenya if they could allow me to do both this and the World cross,” she says.
Beijing is the biggest goal
But like all other runners who are busy preparing for the new season, Cheruiyot’s ambitions are very much centred on the Beijing Olympics in 2008. “My main aim for 2008 is the Olympic Games in Beijing,” she says. “It will be my second Olympics as I ran in Sydney in 2000.”
Asked about any possible assaults on her own Kenyan national 5000m record before the Olympics or an even more ambitious attack on Meseret Defar’s World mark, Simms says, “We are aiming to peak in Beijing. If she runs fast before then it will be a bonus.”
Cheruiyot on Defar: “We are good friends”
Her track ambitions mean that she will likely again come up against Defar in competition. Asked about her opinion on Defar, Cheruiyot said, “Meseret Defar was the top Ethiopian athlete this year and I was very happy for her to win the female World Athlete of the Year. We are friends and always talk at competitions.”
But does she believe she can overhaul Defar in the short term?
“I would like to, but she is very tough,” she says. “I don’t really want to focus on one individual. If I continue to train hard and improve, I feel like I will be hard to beat.”
Elshadai Negash for the IAAF
