Keydet ready to bust out
Kenyan Paulvince Obuon has made a quick impression during the indoor track season.
LEXINGTON - Paulvince Obuon can't wait to get outside.
He yearns for fresh air and open spaces, and he's almost there. He just has one tiny chore to take care of before he can set himself free. A VMI freshman from Kisumu, Kenya, Obuon is competing in the NCAA National Indoor Track and Field Championships this weekend in Fayetteville, Ark.
A stranger to indoor track and even to formal coaching until the past year, Obuon earned a spot in the NCAAs with a meet-record 20.85 seconds in the 200-meter race at the IC4A Championships last weekend. Now he's one of 16 collegiate 200-meter runners in the chase for the national title today.
"All I know is, I can do better," Obuon said. "In sprints, when you have strong opponents, you get better times. You push one another.
"My performance makes me have confidence. In nationals, I think I'm going to do better."
Although it is no surprise to find a Kenyan among the elite at a track meet, Kenya is known more for its distance runners than its sprinters. Obuon said that has more to do with people's passions than their abilities.
"It's something you enjoy," he said. "Some people have talent, but they aren't dedicated. They don't love it."
Obuon's tribe is not even known for runners. The Luo play soccer. Even so, Obuon said, "I was born a sprinter."
Obuon, 20, did not actually practice running. Every couple of weeks he would borrow enough money to travel to a meet from his mother, Agnes Achieng, a street vendor who put him through school and now supports herself and Obuon's 9-year-old sister, Purity Anyango. He would repay her with the expense money he won.
He did win. Obuon won the the 100- and 200-meter races at the Kenya Junior Nationals and was named Kenya Secondary School Athlete of the Year. Last year he ran the fastest 100 meters in Kenya.
Now he has had to adapt to a world of track and field that involves weight training, practice routines and walls. Obuon, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound international studies major, is good at adapting.
He admits that, even after attending a summer orientation program, the first week at VMI was "hell."
"I learned after the first time, that it's psychological war," Obuon said, tapping a finger on his temple. "It's up to you. If you think it bothers you, it will bother you. I just took it as normal. ...
"If you think you are the one suffering, you will suffer forever."
Obuon had not before run indoor track, which involves running on a smaller, tighter-turning track in confined spaces. The indoor 200 has two tight turns instead of one long one, then a straightaway dash to the finish.
"Sprint is about speed and frequency," Obuon said. "You try to get your frequency and then you get to the next curve ... it's a challenge."
He also is bothered by the shorter distances indoors, the 55- and 60-meter sprints.
"The stretch sprints are too small," he said. "By the time you try to pick up speed, the race is gone."
Then there's the necessary layout of indoor tracks, where a wall or fence greets sprinters near the end of their dashes.
"I'm afraid of the wall," Obuon said. "The wall comes very fast."
Obuon's steep learning curve didn't stop him from winning. He finished second once in the 10 races he ran this season. He won the other nine.
Obuon set VMI records in the 60 meters (6.72 seconds) and the 200 meters (20.85) and was named Big South Indoor Track performer of the year. He is ranked 11th in the NCAA and 20th in the world in the indoor 200. His 20.85 NCAA-qualifying time in the 200 was the fastest in the 83-year history of the IC4A meet and the fastest run by a Kenyan.
That is why both Obuon and VMI coach Mike Bozeman both break into Cheshire-cat grins whenever they talk about the upcoming outdoor track season, when he'll run the 100, the 200 and the 4x100 relay.
"Outdoors is going to be good," Obuon said. "I'm used to outdoors, with the free air. It's going to be a great season for me and VMI."
Obuon said competing in the Olympics is a goal, but Bozeman prefers a one-day-at-a-time approach.
"I won't feel comfortable until I see him run outdoors a couple of times," Bozeman said.
Bozeman has yet to see his star compete outdoors. He offered Obuon a scholarship on the recommendation of Kenyan 800-meter star Paul Ereng, a former University of Virginia star who won the 800 gold in the 1998 Olympics.
More important to Bozeman than Ereng's track credentials was his track record. Ereng was the one who recommended his cousin Michael Lokale to Bozeman. Lokale not only won many championships at VMI, he also became a Rhodes Scholar.
Ereng told Bozeman about the young runner who was posting such good times in Kenya.
"His races were hand-timed, but they were run on dirt," Bozeman said. "With those times, we knew he would be very good, that he could help us. I thought if he is as good as Paul thinks he is, that will be a plus."
Bozeman's smile broadens at the thought:
"He's as good as Paul thinks he is."
He yearns for fresh air and open spaces, and he's almost there. He just has one tiny chore to take care of before he can set himself free. A VMI freshman from Kisumu, Kenya, Obuon is competing in the NCAA National Indoor Track and Field Championships this weekend in Fayetteville, Ark.
A stranger to indoor track and even to formal coaching until the past year, Obuon earned a spot in the NCAAs with a meet-record 20.85 seconds in the 200-meter race at the IC4A Championships last weekend. Now he's one of 16 collegiate 200-meter runners in the chase for the national title today.
"All I know is, I can do better," Obuon said. "In sprints, when you have strong opponents, you get better times. You push one another.
"My performance makes me have confidence. In nationals, I think I'm going to do better."
Although it is no surprise to find a Kenyan among the elite at a track meet, Kenya is known more for its distance runners than its sprinters. Obuon said that has more to do with people's passions than their abilities.
"It's something you enjoy," he said. "Some people have talent, but they aren't dedicated. They don't love it."
Obuon's tribe is not even known for runners. The Luo play soccer. Even so, Obuon said, "I was born a sprinter."
Obuon, 20, did not actually practice running. Every couple of weeks he would borrow enough money to travel to a meet from his mother, Agnes Achieng, a street vendor who put him through school and now supports herself and Obuon's 9-year-old sister, Purity Anyango. He would repay her with the expense money he won.
He did win. Obuon won the the 100- and 200-meter races at the Kenya Junior Nationals and was named Kenya Secondary School Athlete of the Year. Last year he ran the fastest 100 meters in Kenya.
Now he has had to adapt to a world of track and field that involves weight training, practice routines and walls. Obuon, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound international studies major, is good at adapting.
He admits that, even after attending a summer orientation program, the first week at VMI was "hell."
"I learned after the first time, that it's psychological war," Obuon said, tapping a finger on his temple. "It's up to you. If you think it bothers you, it will bother you. I just took it as normal. ...
"If you think you are the one suffering, you will suffer forever."
Obuon had not before run indoor track, which involves running on a smaller, tighter-turning track in confined spaces. The indoor 200 has two tight turns instead of one long one, then a straightaway dash to the finish.
"Sprint is about speed and frequency," Obuon said. "You try to get your frequency and then you get to the next curve ... it's a challenge."
He also is bothered by the shorter distances indoors, the 55- and 60-meter sprints.
"The stretch sprints are too small," he said. "By the time you try to pick up speed, the race is gone."
Then there's the necessary layout of indoor tracks, where a wall or fence greets sprinters near the end of their dashes.
"I'm afraid of the wall," Obuon said. "The wall comes very fast."
Obuon's steep learning curve didn't stop him from winning. He finished second once in the 10 races he ran this season. He won the other nine.
Obuon set VMI records in the 60 meters (6.72 seconds) and the 200 meters (20.85) and was named Big South Indoor Track performer of the year. He is ranked 11th in the NCAA and 20th in the world in the indoor 200. His 20.85 NCAA-qualifying time in the 200 was the fastest in the 83-year history of the IC4A meet and the fastest run by a Kenyan.
That is why both Obuon and VMI coach Mike Bozeman both break into Cheshire-cat grins whenever they talk about the upcoming outdoor track season, when he'll run the 100, the 200 and the 4x100 relay.
"Outdoors is going to be good," Obuon said. "I'm used to outdoors, with the free air. It's going to be a great season for me and VMI."
Obuon said competing in the Olympics is a goal, but Bozeman prefers a one-day-at-a-time approach.
"I won't feel comfortable until I see him run outdoors a couple of times," Bozeman said.
Bozeman has yet to see his star compete outdoors. He offered Obuon a scholarship on the recommendation of Kenyan 800-meter star Paul Ereng, a former University of Virginia star who won the 800 gold in the 1998 Olympics.
More important to Bozeman than Ereng's track credentials was his track record. Ereng was the one who recommended his cousin Michael Lokale to Bozeman. Lokale not only won many championships at VMI, he also became a Rhodes Scholar.
Ereng told Bozeman about the young runner who was posting such good times in Kenya.
"His races were hand-timed, but they were run on dirt," Bozeman said. "With those times, we knew he would be very good, that he could help us. I thought if he is as good as Paul thinks he is, that will be a plus."
Bozeman's smile broadens at the thought:
"He's as good as Paul thinks he is."
