Age no barrier for Gebrselassie and others

ATHLETICS:Haile Gebrselassie is old enough to run in next Saturday's Irish Masters event at Santry, but instead he is concentrating on tomorrow's New York City marathon, writes IAN O'RIORDAN

AT THE risk of hitting The Wall of marathon running commentary I reckon the best race of the year has been saved until last. Tomorrow morning, starting at 9.40am local time, around 45,000 people will run the 26.2 miles through the five boroughs of New York, and the man most likely to lead them all home is the 37-year-old Ethiopian and marathon world record-holder Haile Gebrselassie.

It’s the first time Gebrselassie has tackled New York, the biggest and one of the most testing marathons in the world, and needless to say he’s not doing it for the good of his health. Mary Wittenberg, president of the New York organising team, has been trying to lure him into running it for the past decade, and last May, personally travelled to his home in Addis Ababa to finally convince him. A few cups of Ethiopian coffee later, and the promise of a $400,000 (€284,000) appearance fee, Gebrselassie agreed to run. He’ll collect another $130,000 (€92,000) if he wins and a further $70,000 (€50,000) bonus if he breaks the course record of 2:07:43.

Of course there’s no guarantee Gebrselassie will win, and Wittenburg has lined up several other leading East African runners, including fellow Ethiopian Gebre Gebremariam and Kenya’s Abel Kirui, the reigning world marathon champion. Incidentally, of the 43 major international marathons in this year’s autumn season (as in September to November), 39 have been won by Kenyan runners, and the other four by Ethiopians. And that obviously means 39 different Kenyan runners, including Wilson Kipsang, who in only his second marathon, won in Frankfurt last Sunday in the amazing time of 2:04.57 – the eighth fastest in history.

It’s just over two years since Gebrselassie set his world record of 2:03.59, in Berlin – and while he’s unlikely to improve that in New York, he still believes he can run perhaps a minute quicker. Given he’s broken 28 world records over the course of his extraordinary career there’s no reason why he can’t break one more, particularly as age doesn’t appear to be slowing him down. Gebrselassie’s official birth date is April 18th, 1973, although as I’ve said before, that’s more of an estimate. Birth certificates are a rarity in Ethiopia’s remote mountainous area of Arsi, or at least were in 1973, and some people reckon Gebrselassie is a lot closer to 40, maybe even older.

That’s no slight whatsoever on his running career; rather, it’s a further accolade. Even if he is only 37, Gebrselassie continues to prove that age is no barrier to sporting achievement. If the mind is still willing then so too should the body. (Or should be the other way round?) In fact, strictly speaking, Gebrselassie now qualifies as a veteran – or a “masters” runner, to give them their more correct title. And believe me, masters running can be every bit as competitive as the so-called standard age group, sometimes even more so.

If you want any proof of this then come along to Santry next Saturday when the Irish Masters Athletic Association (IMAA) hosts the annual Great Britain and Ireland International Cross Country. Since 1988 this event has brought together the leading masters runners from Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in a sort of five-nations championship, and although England have won the overall team title every year since its inception, there are high hopes that Ireland might be poised to finally change that.

Given the home advantage, the IMAA have managed to recruit several former Irish champions, from the track, road and cross country, and a couple of former Olympians too – including such familiar names as Peter Mathews, Tommy Hughes, Pauric McKinney, Jim McNamara, Annette Kealy, Niamh O’Sullivan and Mary Jennings. There are 15 age categories in total, starting at 35 and over, with five-year increments up to 65 and over for women, and 70 and over for men. These are divided into three championship races on the day – starting at 12.45pm with all the women’s age categories plus the men 65 and over (6km); then all the men’s 50 and over, at 1.30 (6km); and finally all the men’s 35 and over, at 1.30pm (8km).

It used to be that veterans or masters running began at age 40, but since 2007 the age 35 and over category has become one of the standards – and that has further heightened the competitive nature. “What you’ll see next Saturday will be very, very competitive,” says Mick Fennell, the IMAA international secretary. “And some of the performances will be phenomenal for the age groups. Jim McNamara for example, who ran the Olympic marathon in Montreal, is 72 now and he still gives it everything. Age 70 and over is the oldest for men and 65 for the women, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be 74- or 75-year-olds out there competing.”

Fennell is himself a veteran of the masters running scene (and pardon that pun) and admits not everyone is a fan of the overage competitive structure, the same way not everyone is a fan of the underage competitive structure. Truth is masters running is usually either ignored as a competitive sport, or else castigated. But seriously, what’s the harm?

“Some people believe we should all have retired long ago,” says Fennell, “and concentrate on helping other events. But the interest in the competition is there, and it is very intense. England certainly takes it very seriously, and they are very, very strong. It’s like trying to beat the Kenyans, really. But this is our strongest team, definitely, and hopefully we can win at least a few gold medals in the various categories, and maybe even that overall team title. But I think that anyone who comes along next Saturday will be surprised at just how competitive it is.”

Indeed three members of the Irish team have already been nominated for the Master Athlete of the Year Award, which will also be presented in Santry next Saturday as part of the Athletics Ireland annual awards night: Mags Greenan from Clonliffe Harriers has already won European and World Masters Mountain Running titles this year; Pat Timmons from Raheny Shamrock won European Masters bronze over 800 metres, as well as dominating the Irish Masters Championships at the distance; and Pat O’Shea from Iveragh AC also won silver and bronze over 5,000 and 10,000 metres in the European Masters championship.

O’Shea recently turned 60, and a few years ago I actually met him running down the beach in Castlegregory – cruising along with the gait of a man half his age. O’Shea lives in Cahersiveen and counts former Kerry footballer Maurice Fitzgerald as one of his training partners, and does most of his running along the three-quarter-mile stretch of nearby White Strand. He puts his longevity down to beach running and staying off the roads whenever possible, and that may be true, but I don’t know if even Gebrselassie will be running as well at age 60 as O’Shea is. But then “What kind of man would I be if I didn’t keep trying?” as Mick Pyro sings on the new Republic of Loose album, Bounce at the Devil.