Romanian coach behind Kenya’s half-marathon world record: ‘I’d be happy for the next one to be for Romania’

Coach Carol Santa has been working for two years with Kenyan athlete Ruth Chepngetich, who recently set a new world record for the one-hour, four-minute, two-second half-marathon. The Romanian has been training for years in Africa athletes from Kenya with outstanding results. Three of his athletes are now legitimized at the Bucharest club Steaua and have the chance to bring Olympic medals for Romania this year.bpass the finish line.

Carol Şanta left Romania in 2011 and now lives in Kenya

‘It’s an absolutely exceptional result and her and mine regret is that it wasn’t a few seconds earlier, because it would have been her first performance under an hour and four minutes. It’s a barrier that until recently was hard and to think about it,” says Santa.

Ruth ran 29 seconds faster than the previous record of 1:04:31. And yet, those 3 seconds! For those three seconds, Ruth and other athletes of her stature will work hard. A blood competition.

Ruth Chepngetich | Photo: EPA

“Our Kenyans” for the Olympics

‘We anticipated that, this year it was a world record because her preparation over the last two or three years justifies without just and maybe attempting a world record. Even though it was a half-marathon competition in Istanbul, it remains a criterion in the composition of Kenya’s Olympic team. There are two or three athletes who can’t wait for the starters to take the wrong step,” explains the Romanian coach as tough as the fight is.

Kenya has more than 80 Olympic and world champion in athletics and thousands of aspirants. Fierce competition makes many legitimize themselves in other countries in order to have the chance to participate in major competitions.

Carol Santa, for example, helped legitimize three Kenyan sportsmen at the Steaua club. Joan Chelimo, Delvine Merigor and Stella Ruto are now awaiting completion of naturalization procedures. Joan was fourth in Istanbul at 1:05:09.

“It would mean, in the context of the Istanbul result, that Joan is one of the candidates for an Olympic marathon medal. She made a very good result in Valencia and according to the regulation, she is qualified and, after obtaining citizenship, the Romanian Olympic Committee is to make arrangements for her registration for the Olympic Games,” explains the coach. “I would be happy for the next world record for Romania,” says the 66-year-old coach, who has devoted his entire life to high-level athletics.b

Carol Santa has lived for nine years in Iten, Kenya, a city with 40,000 inhabitants and the highest density of world and Olympic athletics champions in the world. After training for a while at Saint George, he left the country in 2011 and coached Turkey’s squad for a time, and then decided to stay on his own in Kenya and build a team of athletes. By naturalizing Kenya’s three sportsmen, they hope to revive the tradition of athletics from us.

“Stella made a great debut in the half-marathon, one hour, seven minutes and a bit. And Delvine is a 1.07 runner. There are three girls well above national records. The project with Romania I wanted very much and would ensure my peace and connection with the country, with the family, with the local athletics”, says Carol Şanta.

The result comes after a year in which sports competitions were cancelled. With the new travel restrictions, too few organisers have assumed the conduct of events.

All the while, Carol Santa had to give her athletes confidence, not to feel like she was training in the void. Where else do you put that if they don’t go to competitions, they don’t make money.

“Any change affects the athlete. Good results are prepared ahead of time and there is a precise organization. I was lucky to have some athletes with a lot of willpower and a desire for performance and then, with systematic training, the athlete always has some milestones and every day he confirms that the training is at the level he wants to reach in a competitive context.”