Stuart Franklin travelled to Kenya’s heartland of distance running in Eldoret and Iten, two towns situated over 2,000m from sea level. These high-altitude towns are the home to most of the great Kenyan Olympic and World Champion distance runners from the past 40 years. Iten’s also home to the IAAF-accredited Olympic High Altitude Training Centre, founded by ex-World Champion Lornah Kiplagat, which is also a base for many non-Kenyan runners who come to train in the region. Stuart captured the athletes on their morning runs and their daily lives.

Along with Ethiopia and Eritrea, distance running to Kenyans from this region is a way of life, with large groups of professional and amateur athletes running together from dawn to evening. Successful runners move to Europe for the lucrative athletics season and often earn enough money to help fund infrastructure and work in their home villages and enjoy celebrity status and high profile to the country’s international reputation. This has led to the presence of many athletics agents locating in the area looking for the next Paul Tergat or Dennis Kimetto and also, a rise in drug test failures by Kenyan athletes leading to the country’s athletics federation almost being suspended from competition in 2016 for inadequate testing procedures, which they have now met.

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