Martin Keino, the child of the legendary athlete Kipchoge Keino is one of the many Kenyans who are not recognized enough for the incredible feats they have achieved in their lives.
Although he failed to replicate his father’s impressive performances on the track, Martin made a name for himself as a pacesetter, also known as a rabbit.
The Chief Executive Officer of Keino Sports Marketing helped seven athletes set world records before retiring.
Also Read: 5 Kenyan Athletes Who Currently Hold World Records
Some of the runners he paced to world records include Kenenisa Bekele and Daniel Komen.
Keino made his pacing debut during the 1996 European circuit, where he helped a runner smash the two-mile world record.
According to Keino, he entered into the pace-setting profession by luck - never in his life had he dreamt of becoming a rabbit.
“I didn’t choose to be a pacemaker. I wanted to achieve my dreams as a top 1500 metre runner,”
“But one of my colleagues, Daniel Komen, who we shared a manager with, wanted to break a world record, and so the manager asked me if I’d help him with the pacemaking for his attempt at breaking the world record.
"I became a man in demand for the job. It was quite an accident," Martin was quoted by Citizen Digital.
As fate would have it, Keino went on to help Komen set a new 5,000m world record in 1997 when he crossed the finishing line in 12:39.74.
In 2004, Keino helped Bekele to smash the 10,000m world record at the Golden Spike Grand Prix in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
Martin pushed Bekele to cross the 3,000m mark in an impressive time of 7:55.97 as he went on to cross the finishing line in 26:20.31, in the process destroying the 6-year-old world record.
In addition, he played an instrumental role in helping Kenenisa smash both the 5,000m (Indoor and outdoor) world records.
Besides guiding both Bekele and Komen to world records, Keino also assisted Gebreselassie to shutter the world records in the 10,000m and 5,000m disciplines.
World Records that Keino paced
Daniel Komen (5,000m and two miles).
Haile Gebrselassie (10,000m and 5,000m).
Kenenisa Bekele (10,000m and 5,000m (Indoor and Outdoor).