Kenya is home for Kiwi twins

 It is not always that you hear of a teenager walking up to his parents and suggesting Kenya as his preferred choice for the future, be it academics or sport. But for New Zealanders Zane Robertson and his twin brother Jake, it was this African nation that appealed to them the most.

“I think it began from the time Jake returned from the World Cross Country Championships in Japan (in 2006),” recalls Zane, now an accomplished middle and long distance runner who is in Bengaluru for the TCS World 10K.
“He went to Japan and met a lot of Kenyans and they bonded well. He even asked if we could come to Kenya and train with them. They were very welcoming and supportive to the idea so it grew from there.”

A self-confessed misfits among other kids of their age in their schooldays in Hamilton, the Robertsons knew they had the passion for something else. They joined a run club and within a year they were already the national champions in their age group. It was around this time that Jake made it to the Japan-bound Kiwi team.
But how did the parents of the then 17-year-olds react to the idea of their kids moving to Kenya? “Of course they thought we were crazy,” he says.  “But they knew us. They knew, come what may, we would go there and work and earn and do it anyway. So they agreed.”

They decided to spend four months doing altitude training in Ethiopia. But soon after they arrived, the Robertsons made the decision to extend their four-month stay indefinitely, eventually beginning training in Iten, Kenya. “We decided we liked it so much out there and that we needed to keep pushing forward,” Robertson says. “We needed to see this through to the end.”

While what “the end” entailed wasn’t clear at that point, the boys knew they wanted to test their bodies and see how far their natural talent could take them in an environment that had produced some of the world’s best runners. “There’s just one thing that we knew, We had to see through,” said Zane, who was the bronze winner in 5000M at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 2014.

“It was difficult. But I think that hardship really added to my character. Luckily, we were supported by some big names in the sport like Patrick Sang and Eliud Kipchoge. They helped us a lot in the early days. I think, those years prepared us mentally for our careers as professional distance runners. What we do is not easy. You need that mental strength. Apart from being strong physically, we also need to be strong mentally.”

Being a non-African and having spent a considerable amount of time in Kenya as an athlete, where does Zane stand on the ‘genetics aiding athletes’ debate? “I think it’s about how you grow up,” he says.

“We didn’t grow up on McDonalds. My mother took good care of what we ate. We walked or ran to school, just like (Kenyans) do. Normally, we ran back home, to get back to our favourite cartoon. I think it has got a lot to do with having an active life when you’re young. Jake and I are examples of how an active upbringing and a healthy diet can help you overcome the genetic advantage they have.”