African athletes find their feet in Vietnam’s marathon running boom | Athletics News

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – Ethiopian runner Tesfaye Tsegaye Keress deftly made his way through nearly 18,000 participants to position himself near the starting line of the Techcombank Ho Chi Minh City International Marathon in December.

Keress said his diminutive size – he stands just 1.62 metres (5.3ft) tall and weighs about 50kg (116 pounds) – allowed the 27-year-old to slink easily through the throngs of runners to secure a strategic spot near the front just before the starting pistol was fired, in what was billed as Vietnam’s biggest marathon.

Just days earlier, Keress had landed in Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam’s commercial capital. He was accompanied by fellow Ethiopian runner, Dereje Alemu Miko, who came to compete in the 21km (13-mile) half-marathon at the event where Keress would run the full 42.1km marathon.

In a competition consisting primarily of thousands of local Vietnamese runners, the participation of Keress and Miko immediately stirred interest. Local media wanted to know who the competitors from East Africa were.

As Keress told Al Jazeera, love for the sport of running was not the only reason for their trip to Vietnam.

Keress knew that taking first place in the Ho Chi Minh City marathon would earn him a $2,500 cash prize.

Winning was important, he said.

“I have a wife and two sons, and we live in Sendafa,” Keress said, naming his hometown in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, about 38km (24 miles) northeast of the capital, Addis Ababa.

“We run a chicken farm and have two cows for milk. We plan to expand our farm using the money from marathon races,” he said.

To win, he would not only have to beat some of Vietnam’s best long-distance runners but also Kenya’s Edwin Kiptoo – a fellow East African who currently dominates Vietnam’s marathon running circuit after winning a string of major races.

Finding their feet on Vietnam’s streets

Keress might be considered an average runner in his native Ethiopia – a country that has produced some of the world’s most renowned track athletes.

His personal best speed to complete a marathon is 2:23:50, which he achieved in 2023 in a marathon in Thailand. Though impressive, that speed would still rule him out of top-tier marathon competitions – the Boston Marathon requires speeds of less than 2 hours 13 minutes for entrants in its professional division.

In Vietnam, however, Keress’s speed makes him a championship contender in a country where running has seen a steep rise in popularity.

Over the past decade, marathons have boomed in Vietnam – a development partly attributed to the country’s increasingly wealthy middle class seeking ways to keep fit in the country’s burgeoning big cities. There is also a new social side to running in Vietnam’s well-attended marathons, according to reports, which have seen a steep rise in popularity since the mid-2010s.

Despite a years-long slump during COVID, the popularity of running came back even stronger post-pandemic, with many people focused on keeping healthy. Local news site VnExpress reported in 2023 that a total of 41 full marathon races, with some 264,000 entrants, took place in 27 provinces and cities across Vietnam that year. That was 10 more marathons than were held in Vietnam in 2022.

With hundreds of thousands of runners taking part in a plethora of marathons up and down this country of 100 million people, major private sponsors have stepped in with prize money.

Vietnam’s many marathons and lucrative prizes of thousands of dollars for winners are now attracting high-performing athletes – like Keress and Kiptoo – from the elite running centres of East Africa.

East African athletes have long been a dominant force in competitive running, with world-famous track stars like Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge – who in 2019 became the first person in recorded history to run a 42-km marathon in less than two hours – and Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie who is considered one of the greatest long-distance runners in history, having set 27 world records.

Sporting scouts have for years flocked to Kenya and Ethiopia, among other East African countries, to identify promising talent. Deals to compete in competitions around the world are often mediated by sport agents, who sponsor a runner and in return may take a cut of their winnings if successful. There is also the opportunity to capitalise on media attention with product and brand deals that race victories accrue for individuals and running teams.

Such an arrangement brought Keress and Miko to compete in the Ho Chi Minh City marathon and half-marathon in December. They are both managed by a promoter from Thailand who sponsors a team of runners and also operates a company specialising in energy supplements for athletes.

Marathon running has also taken off in Thailand, along with a growing market for running gear and other services. And when runners such as Keress and Miko win races, there is a high return for sponsoring brand names and their products and services.

From prize hunter to celebrity athlete in Vietnam

When Edwin Kiptoo – who should not be confused with another younger Kenyan runner with the same name but of much greater international acclaim – first arrived in Vietnam in December 2023, he described how he was initially unprepared for the country and its costs.

Simply finding accommodation on arrival was challenging for Kiptoo, who arrived with a budget of just 150,000 Vietnamese dong (less than $6), hoping to find a simple place to rest one night before the race. In downtown Ho Chi Minh City, the cheapest room Kiptoo could find was double that price.

But good fortune seemed to favour Kiptoo when he was befriended by local runner Le Hoan whom he met at the race station where they went to collect their running bibs the day before the race. Learning of Kiptoo’s struggle to find somewhere cheap to stay, Le Hoan tried to help in the search for accommodation using a booking app. Still no luck.

As Kiptoo had handed Le Hoan his passport during the search for somewhere to stay, the Vietnamese runner spotted that they were both born in the same year, and that the Kenyan’s birthday was on the same day as his wife’s. Taking the alignment of dates as an auspicious sign, Le Hoan invited the Kenyan to his home. Over dinner with Le Hoan’s family, Kiptoo told them how he was running to support his family and had to save as much as possible.

Le Hoan paid for the runner’s stay in a hostel that night – on the eve of the huge Techcombank Ho Chi Minh City. The next day, Kiptoo would run faster than Vietnam’s two best marathon runners, Hoang Nguyen Thanh and Nguyen Van Lai, to win the race and pocket a $2,500 cash prize on the spot.

“Mr Hoan took me home and offered me meals with his family. He also rented me a hostel room for the night,” Kiptoo recounted to Al Jazeera. “After I won my first race, I offered to pay Hoan back but he simply refused,” he said.

“The generosity of him and his family truly surprised me,” he added.

Kiptoo’s wins and public profile in Vietnam have rocketed since. He quickly became a star runner in Vietnam and his participation in races is now sought after. His winnings have also stacked up, earning an average of about $1,000 each week for taking first place in races across the country.

But that was just the beginning.

In October 2024, Kiptoo signed a major sponsorship contract with sportswear company Do-Win Vietnam.

The company announced in a celebratory Facebook post how it had entered “a formal partnership with renowned runner Kiptoo!”

“This collaboration will create new breakthroughs and further strengthen the brand’s position in the sports industry,” it said.

The deal covers the runner’s living expenses, competition entrance fees, and, crucially, secures a visa allowing Kiptoo to compete professionally in Vietnam. In the past, visas and visa extensions for Africans in Vietnam have been problematic, partly due to a crackdown on foreigners involved in crime in the country.

So having a major sponsor behind him gives runners such as Kiptoo a large degree of security.

The 38-year-old, whose wife and daughter are still in Kenya, has even been given access to exclusive, publicly funded sports facilities and resources, which are typically reserved for provincial or national-level Vietnamese athletes.

Now freed from financial pressure and logistical concerns regarding race participation, Kiptoo said he has been able to fully dedicate himself to training, making him a force nearly impossible to beat in Vietnam’s marathons.

“The support from Vietnamese people makes me feel at home,” Kiptoo told Al Jazeera.

Success in Vietnam has not only brought Kiptoo financial rewards but also elevated him to a sort of sports celebrity status among local people. He has been featured many times by local Vietnamese media because of his running success and his posts on Facebook receive thousands of reactions – mostly from his Vietnamese fans.

Competing in Vietnam is still a gamble

A marathon, which usually lasts at least two hours for top-level runners, inherently carries risks as it challenges a person’s physical and mental limits.

For African runners competing in Vietnam, challenges exist not only during the race but also in the many twists and turns their professional journey takes.

In March 2023, runners Kemboi Ezekiel from Kenya and Marta Tinsae Birehan from Ethiopia were full of hope on entering a race in Ho Chi Minh City after hearing that breaking the Vietnamese marathon record would win them a car. After arriving in the country, they discovered that the car prize had been a one-time offer available only in the previous year’s race.

Despite their disappointment, both runners went on to compete. While Ezekiel faced little competition in the men’s race, Marta unexpectedly collapsed while leading the women’s race. She had mistakenly consumed an electrolyte drink at a water station, which upset her digestive system.

Even Kiptoo, with more experience and many marathon championships under his belt in Vietnam, cannot escape challenges. In late 2024, he was sponsored to compete in a marathon in Hanoi. Due to a misunderstanding, a sponsor failed to register Kiptoo among the professional athletes competing. As a result, despite winning the marathon, Kiptoo only received an age-group prize of $200, rather than the $2,100 winner’s takings. He said he did not want to complain about the outcome, saying “we all have to follow the rules.”

Running in the Ho Chi Minh City Marathon in December along an already familiar course and accustomed to the climate, Kiptoo cruised to victory over Keress and thousands of others to further cement his reign over the Vietnamese marathon scene.

Finishing just behind Kiptoo, Keress limped across the finish line, grimacing in pain. He attributed his performance to fatigue from another recent marathon.

After receiving treatment in the recovery area, Keress’s pain subsided but his frustration lingered until his mood was lifted when he discovered that he had won $1,000 in prize money for taking third place – a welcome contribution to his dream of expanding his farm back home. However, as his promoter will also take a cut of his winnings, his actual takings would not be so big.

His teammate Miko dominated the half marathon, securing a $600 prize.

‘Unpredictable risks’

After their races, both runners were taken back to their hotel to rest before returning to Thailand, where they had been based for the previous six months in a training camp outside the capital, Bangkok. Their Thai promoter oversees all aspects of their running careers in Southeast Asia – from travel and accommodation to training plans, race entries and immigration visas.

For runners such as Keress and Miko, who have travelled little beyond their home countries, such management deals are indispensable. They told Al Jazeera how they hold their Thai manager in high regard, viewing him as a sort of father figure.

But the relationship seems closer to employee and employer, with the runners being very much bound by the overriding imperative of achieving good performance for their team and sponsor – in an unspoken power dynamic.

Keress and Miko recounted how they had plans to return to Ethiopia and reunite with their families.

They did not know how much prize money they would be bringing home with them as the cost of their travel expenses to competitions, accommodation and food are deducted from their winnings.

And not all marathons pay winners immediately – some prizes are delayed for months and financial security is far from assured for many runners.

Despite the difficulty and uncertainty faced by prize-hunting runners in Vietnam, rumours about the country as a life-changing destination for athletes are spreading in East Africa, according to Kiptoo, Keress and others.

Previously a teacher in Eldoret, in Kenya’s Rift Valley region, Kiptoo’s meagre salary barely supported his family. Then COVID-19 hit and his family’s finances were devastated. That was, he said, when he took up running seriously as a way out of poverty.

His success in Vietnam has not only allowed him to support his family but also to buy several properties as investments in Kenya.

Kiptoo recounted how he never expected that Vietnam would become so central to his life as an athlete and breadwinner for his family.

“In Kenya, we watch a lot of Vietnamese films, but very few people actually know what the country is really like,” Kiptoo said.

He did not know either, at the beginning.

Now with marathon running projected to continue growing in coming years, the draw of Vietnam for African runners is not likely to wane soon.

“Perhaps more Kenyan athletes will come here in the future to earn money through running events. But it’s not easy,” he said.

“The two countries are very far apart, and marathons always carry unpredictable risks.”