Redakcja Bieganie.pl
Where there’s a will, there’s a way
The reigning Luxemburg marathon winner John Komen believes that anything is possible in athletics as long as one has the passion and the dream to achieve whatever they want to. Komen who is a very close friend with the immediate former world record holder Wilson Kipsang started the journey of athletics back in 2007 with Kipsang and even though they had no manager no shoe company no coach they still saw their dreams come true when they first traveled to Europe for their first race together.
“The first time I traveled abroad was with Kipsang. We used to train together and by then everything was hard and challenging, we had no sponsor, no shoe company, no manager or a coach but we went to the internet check for races and we chose one in Turkey called Tarsus half marathon, we registered online and then we got a loan from bank to pay for our tickets , going to the embassy was another task, we went to the AK (Athletics Kenya) where we me the secretary general David Okeyo, to write us a letter that would help us get a visa and the secretary general was like, ‘who is your manager?‘, we told him that we were on our own and we assured him that we would make it…… And yes we did! We went to Tarsus half marathon in Turkey where I came second with a time of 1:02.41 minutes behind Wilson Kipsang” Komen on his statement
The 2011 Reims marathon winner Komen, has won four marathons in his carrier including La Rochelle where he broke the course record of 2:07.13minutes back in 2009 and also 2013 and this year he won Luxemburg marathon running 2:13.57 minutes.
“I won Reims marathon back in 2008 with a time of 2:08.06 minutes and it was a hard course and the next day I was confirmed to run Boston marathon where I come position seven, and the next year I went to Paris running 2:08.12 minutes and 2011 was my biggest success as I ran my personal best of 2:07.13 in La Rochelle marathon in France, this year I also won Luxembourg marathon 2:13.56 minutes“ said Komen.
He said that starting the journey with Kipsang is one thing that inspires him a lot, and he is also looking forward to perform even better in his carrier.
“You know running with Kipsang back then was just normal, no one was afraid of the other. We were just beginners and Kipsang was not as competitive as he is now. The all thing was friendly and you know we were training together so there was no panic or whatever”
Komen who is currently preparing for a marathon later this year in Europe said that training in Iten is awesome and he has no plans for changing his training environment.
“I’m now preparing to run one or two marathons at the second phase of this year’s season one of them being Reims marathon for the second time. We’ve been training here since we started running and I don’t see any reason why we should change, Sometimes going to Kaptagat, Fluorspar or Kapngetuny is awesome but that does change that fact that we train in Iten.“
I asked him if marathon is anything that goes around his mind and he said…..
“For now I don’t want to speculate on that but they say ‘Where there’s a will there’s a way’ my dreams are not limited and who knows! I’m taking one step at a time and for now I’m looking forward to a new personal best and then we will have to wait and see how it goes.”
