NEW YORK — If Kenya went ahead with an Olympic marathon trials in February, its most consistent runner over the last few years planned to skip them.
Wilson Kipsang, the former world-record holder who will defend his New York City Marathon title on Sunday, said he would have chosen to race a spring marathon, presumably with much more money at stake, rather than an Olympic trials.
“It wouldn’t have been convenient,” Kipsang said Thursday.
Fortunately, Kenya’s track and field federation quickly scrapped its Olympic trials plan first announced two weeks ago. The world’s dominant marathon nation will choose its three-man and three-woman team by other means.