Allegations have surfaced, though, that some runners helped fund groups behind the violence.
In a report issued last week, the independent, non-profit International Crisis Group, which monitors global hot spots, said runners have "transformed some of the depressed and sleepy rural villages in the [Eldoret] region by investing in farmland and other real estate."
One paragraph in the lengthy report suggested that some runners might be funding groups that use machetes and poison-tipped arrows to attack rival tribes. "The athletes, most of whom have a military background, are reportedly also training and sometimes commanding the raiders," the report said.
The report also suggests that Sang, a member of the Kalenjin tribe, might have been killed while leading a raiding party against members of the Kikuyus tribe. Officials with the national governing body Athletics Kenya discounted the allegations. So did Ngolepus, who was at the Friday news conference and is expected to challenge for the top spot on Sunday: "I condemn [violence] and say that athletes did not sponsor it."
Amid the upheaval, observers said, Kenyan runners are struggling to stick with their training regimens.
"Kenyans have work ethic that is second to none, and their need to run is like breathing to them," Roberts said. "It's how they provide for their families and their extended families. There are a lot of people counting on them."
Tesla Loroupe, a well-known runner who has been involved in peace negotiations in Nairobi, says she sees reminders of the violence every time she runs.
"You see women who have been disgraced, you see people who had property and now must live without anything," Loroupe said in a telephone interview. "We cannot train like we used to. You never know who is going to be coming after you. You are not free. It is a difficult thing to see things that remind you of Sudan and Somalia."
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Times staff writer Edmund Sanders in Nairobi contributed to this report.
greg.johnson@latimes.com
