Is this trafficking or a passport out of poverty?

ATHLETES' GOLDEN TICKET

- KEVIN SIEFF

THE runners came to Eldoret from across Kenya, lured by the top prize in the 3000m: the chance to move to the US and compete for a leading American college. Organisers advertised the race as "The Golden Ticket".

On loudspeakers at the edge of the dirt track, announcers listed the schools that were looking for Kenyans.

"The University of Alabama, the University of Arizona, the University of New Mexico ..." echoed over jangly Kenyan pop music.

News of the time trial swept through this capital of long-distance running. Even as academic scholarships and student visas have come under attack by the Trump administration, college running was one path to the US that had expanded.

The recruiting drive in East Africa is changing the face of college athletics. Last season, Kenyan women took the top three places in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) cross-country championships. And Texas Tech recruited Solomon Kipchoge, 28, another Kenyan whose half-marathon time was faster than the American record when he enrolled as a freshman.

Now it was Dismas Kiprotich and Kelvin Kiptoo's turn. They stretched in the grass next to the track, all sinew and muscle, waiting for their heats.

In the lead-up to the trials, Kiprotich, 24, fixated on the qualifying time - 8 minutes and 12 seconds - and how quickly he would need to run each lap. Kiptoo, 20, tried to imagine his body whipping around the final turn, his phone ringing with calls from interested American coaches after he crossed the finish line.

No one had told them about the changes to NCAA regulations that brought about the recruiting surge. Or the way recruiters had found workarounds to US visa blockages. What the two runners knew was that a slew of agents paid by US coaches had rushed to rural Kenya to organise this event. And they knew how fast they had to run to get to America.