London Marathon 2012: Kenyan Double Adds Intrigue to Olympic Selections

Having too many great marathon runners is a great problem to have for any national Olympic committee, though still a problem nonetheless.

Just ask the Kenyan track federation, which has a slew of spectacular runners from whom to choose for the men's marathon at the 2012 Summer Games in London. There's Wilson Kipsang, who won the London Marathon on Sunday while falling just four seconds short of the course record. He might well have blown away the previous best had someone been close enough to challenge him over the final five-or-so miles of the race.

There's Wesley Korir, who claimed the Boston Marathon just last week, and Geoffrey Mutai, who set the Beantown (and, arguably, the world) record and won the New York Marathon in 2011.

There's Abel Kirui, a two-time world champion who finished a disappointing sixth in London.

And then there's Patrick Makau, who set the official world record of two hours, three minutes and 38 seconds in Berlin last fall.

Tragically absent from that list is Sammy Wanjiru, who won Kenya's first Olympic gold in the marathon at the 2008 Beijing Games, but died last year after falling off the balcony at his home.

Still, the fact that Kenyans have fared so well at the recent marathons hardly guarantees success at the Olympics. If anything, forcing their best distance runners to push for qualification so close to the Summer Games puts Kenya at a disadvantage, since its competitors will ultimately have less time to rest up and prepare for the pursuit of gold.

Surely, though, at least one of the aforementioned champions will have legs enough to lap the competition in London this summer. As such, don't be surprised to see the top prize from the men's Olympic marathon going back to Nairobi when all is said and done.

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