Für unsere Gäste » and decided to run for other cou

NEW YORK -- The distance running calendar rolls on, the winners names change, but the countries of origin do not. So it was no surprise to defending New York Marathon champion Stanley Biwott at his return press conference Friday when one of the first questions posed to him was a familiar one: What makes Kenyan and East African runners so utterly dominant in the distance events? Its the same query the sports and science community have been trying to figure out for years, and the same question that drew identical twins Zane and Jake Robertson to move from small-town New Zealand to Iten, the self-described home of champions, a decade ago to find out.The Robertson twins had little money, precious few connections, but an unshakeable belief even then, at the age of 17, that if they immersed themselves in the famous East African running culture and applied themselves, they could be as great as the Kenyans or Ethiopians someday.They turned down athletic scholarships in the United States. They bucked advice of family and friends, educators and coaches who dismissed them as delusional and arrogant, or even derided them as misfits. Upon arriving in Nairobi, Kenya, they relied on strangers to direct them to the right place. Their first home was a simple mud and wood frame hut that Dennis Kinara, a former runner, was kind enough to offer them. They had to ration money so tightly at the start, for the first month they ate mostly bread and jam.From Competitor.com: Celebs who are running in Big AppleFrom Competitor.com: Diane Nukuri ready to mix it up in NYCFrom Competitor.com: What you need to know about the NYC MarathonPeople thought we were crazy, Zane said this week in a telephone interview from just outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he has moved to from Kenya to train. But once you say What if it doesnt work out? youre already a loser ... What we were interested in was creating something a lot of people dont get. By being here, we believe there are so many advantages that are gained. And it doesnt take a short time. People come here for a month or two months or three months to get their [red] blood cell counts up or be at altitude or do volume training. But its still not possible to gain everything we can gain from living here.Though some other Westerners have followed the Robertsons footsteps and since moved to Kenyas or Ethiopias running hotbeds, the twins were the first. When they arrived in Nairobi, they had to ask for help on how to make the eight-hour bus ride to the running groups they landed with. Zane later survived a near-deadly bout of malaria, and they both escaped the street violence that claimed more than 1,500 lives after the 2007 Kenyan presidential elections, thanks to being tipped off by friends that a mob was headed toward their neighborhood in Iten. Zane says they hid in maize bush for a few days. Our backup plan was if the violence didnt stop and we ran out of food, wed start running to Uganda, Zane explains.Nowadays, Zane doesnt begin training in the hills of Sululta outside Addis Ababa earlier than 6 a.m. because, The hyenas are quite present in the forest. But once its light, its OK. Theyre not hunting me. Theyre going home. But I still wouldnt want to run into a pack of them.Robertson now trains with a group of runners that includes their Ethiopian friend Aselefech Mergia, a contender Sunday in the New York Marathons womens race. The mention of the Robertson twins names brings a smile to her face and that of Kenyan hopeful Lucas Rotich, who will try to dethrone Biwott here and has trained with Jake and Zane in the past.Theyve not only lived in Kenya, Rotich says of the Robertsons, you could say Kenya became their home.Along the way, Zane and his brother have developed a rare insider/outsider perspective into how to combat the daunting statistics that every distance runner who is not from East Africa is confronted with.Among men, athletes of African ancestry hold every major running record from the 1,500 meters to the marathon, and sweeps of all three spots on the medal podiums are commonplace. Biwott led a Kenyan 1-2-3 finish in the New York marathon last year.Through the end of the Rio Olympic Games in August, where Kenyas Eliud Kipchoge won the mens marathon, eight of the top 10 all-time marathon times were run by Kenyans, and the other two belonged to Ethiopians. Of the top 125 mens marathon times ever run, 124 were run by East and North Africans.The same trend has emerged on the womens side of the sport despite the huge hurdles women athletes in Africa still face. Kenyas Jemima Sumgong outran Eunice Kirwa of Bahrain and Mare Dibaba of Ethiopia in Rio to become Ethiopias first Olympic female marathon gold medalist. Mary Keitany of Kenya won the New York Marathon last year, leading another African sweep. While its worth noting that Britains Paula Radcliffes world record of 2:15.25 has stood 13 years, 18 of the top 30 womens marathon times ever belong to Kenyan or Ethiopian women, including every top 30 mark set in the last nine years.Mergia says barriers to African women are rapidly falling because, People back home have started to understand a woman can do anything that a man can.But can a non-African hope to match the times Africans have run? And what magic combination of -- well, what? -- genetics plus self-belief plus training in the same 7,000- or 8,000-foot altitudes and culture and climate explains it?There are also questions whether Kenya and Ethiopias running successes, in particular, come honestly. Despite the Kenyas promises to institute better drug testing -- 40 Kenyan athletes have been banned since 2011 -- a continuing string of corruption scandals prompted dozens of fed-up Kenyan athletes to storm the Athletics Kenya offices in Nairobi in November 2015, demanding top officials resign amid allegations of mismanagement, bribe-taking and attempts to circumvent doping controls. Other athletes have simply left and decided to run for other countries.Kenyan officials missed two more deadlines before finally instituting new, stricter anti-doping rules in June in line with World Anti-Doping Agency directives. That narrowly quashed talk Kenya might be banned from the Rio Games before controversy struck again at the Olympics. Ethiopian officials have come under rightful scrutiny, as well.Robertson was among those openly critical of the lag, complaining to reporters, How many chances do they get?We normally train clean, Kenyas Rotich insisted Friday. We encourage people to run clean.Zane is on record as saying he never saw firsthand doping himself. He also says he and his brother know scientists have batted around plenty of ideas about whether there are genetic predispositions that have given African-born athletes an