World record the goal for Wilson in Frankfurt Marathon

By Myles Edwards.  Reporting from Iten, Kenya.

Thousands of Kenyan athletes regard the world marathon record as the potential pinnacle of their career, the Holy Grail, the ultimate goal.  It is why, just like clockwork, at 6am, 10am and 4pm you will see an abundance of runners churning out mile after mile on the red dirt roads of Iten and other Kenyan towns.  Only a handful will reach such a level. 

The sheer depth of Kenyan talent over the marathon distance is perhaps most comprehensively demonstrated by the fact that Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich is officially the 9^th fastest ever man to run 26.2 miles, and only the 8^th fastest among his countrymen.  On the streets of Frankfurt on October 30^th, the world record is a realistic possibility for the popular and charismatic, ‘Kipsang’:

“We as athletes have aims and expectations which become higher and more ambitious as we achieve.  Now my ambition is the world marathon record.”

Wilson Kipsang winning the 2010 Frankfurt Marathon

Speaking at myself and Dan Mulhare’s place in Iten, Kenya, the reigning Frankfurt Marathon champion was in cheerful and confident mood when discussing how he plans to retain his title and become the fastest man in history in the process.

 

“Frankfurt is my favourite marathon.  The people are friendly and the hospitality is fantastic.  Due to Patrick Makau’s world record run inBerlinlast month (2 hours 3 minutes 38 seconds), my plan has now changed.  I do not intend to run like Makau did, at times he was running 2.03.10 pace and then slowed. 

 

“I aim to run around 2.03.25.  The final 5km should be about maintaining pace, not slowing down.  If I aim for 2.03.05 then I could easily die.  As long as it is under the world record time then I will be very happy”, he said followed by his trademark chuckle of ‘aye aye aye’.

Kipsang explains how his role as a pacemaker has played a big role in his success but goes on to attribute his sensible yet tough approach to training as the biggest factor:

“Being a pacemaker is a crucial part of the learning process.  It teaches you speed control and you have a free mind with no pressure.  I always felt good and it taught me to have no fear.

“You must be clever and sensible and not just run, run, run.  Training is important but training well is the key.  It takes discipline and hard work.  I am a very focused guy, when I want something I go out there and work hard to get it.  The main thing is to live positive, if training is not going well then do not worry, it will come.”

In three days time, the city of Frankfurt could be witness to a new world marathon record.  Whether or not Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich is successful on this occasion, you can be sure to see much more of this determined and personable athlete at the forefront of men’s world marathon running in the not so distant future.

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Orange Tuesday blunder produces red faces at mobile phone giant

Photo courtesy of http://www.dialaphone.co.uk

Mobile phone network giant Orange have angered customers today after sending out an e-mail containing thousands of their e-mail addresses.

This breach of Data Protection has prompted a series of angry responses from customers, with one saying:

“Typical Orange, after the way they have treated me recently this is what I have come to expect!”

Other than the substantial number of addresses, the e-mail did not contain anything confidential but could have a potentially detrimental effect on the company’s reputation.  The message from Orange’s customer service team read:

“Hello from Orange

Thank you for your recent email enquiry.  In order to improve our service we would like to take the opportunity to ask you a couple of questions regarding the way in which you have contacted Orange.

In the pursuit of improving service provided to our customers, Orange are intending to update and modify the ‘Contact Us’ section of the Orange website that our customers use to email their queries to our Customer Service Representatives.

It would be greatly appreciated if you could reply to this email with your thoughts on the ‘Contact Us’ section by answering the following questions.

How easy was the ‘Contact Us’ section of the Orange website to navigate?

Was your query included in the options available?

Did you find it easy to locate the ‘Contact Us’ section?

Do you have any suggestions or comments on how we can improve this service?

Your feedback is important to us and will be passed on to our Development Teams, so thank you for taking the time to reply.

Kind regards

Orange Online Services Team.”

In September 2009 Orange had more than 17 million customers in the UK – 16.11 million active mobile customers and approximately 900,000 fixed broadband customers.

This is not likely to do the company’s success much good in the near future as they have already struggled to match some of the deals offered by competitors such as Vodafone.

Myles Edwards