Athletics: Jake Robertson's life would make 'one hell of a movie'

New Zealand distance runner Jake Robertson in Kenya with his training partners, Kenya, Thursday, July 28, 2011. Credit:NZPA / Supplied.

By Charlie Bristow

The life of a top athlete is often talked about as a journey. Jake Robertson could lay claim to some of the more interesting entries into ones travel journal.

Moving to Kenya, catching malaria, witnessing massacres in the streets, speaking out against the villains of his sport and subsequently receiving death threats, the New Zealand middle distance runner says his experiences "would make one hell of a movie one day when we fully spill the beans".

But that's only a slice of the narrative since he and his brother Zane decided they wanted to be the best in their sport.

"Right now it feels like the worst of it is over. I'd never go through what I went through again." Jake said from St Moritz in Switzerland where he is completing a block of altitude training before Zane attacks next month's World Athletics Championships.

"But now that I'm here and in this position, having come through the other side better off, it's all been worth it."

The 27-year-old Kiwi brothers famously left our shores in 2007 to live and train in Iten, Kenya. Some of the world's most decorated distance runners have trained in the Rift Valley town, including four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah. Its location 2400m above sea level is perfect for altitude training and the results have followed.

In March, Jake and Zane became the fastest twins over a half marathon, with Jake clocking 60 minutes in his debut over the distance. A month later he set a personal best in the 10km at an event in New Orleans, crossing in 27:55.

The promising start to the year means little now, Jake will miss the World Championships in London with a calf injury suffered at a meet in Stanford, USA, felling his chances of qualifying for the event.

It continues a frustrating trend for Jake, who missed the 2015 world championships and last year's Rio Olympics because of a niggling calf complaint on the other leg.

"This (2016) meant a lot to me. Being back injury free, I really wanted to kind of end my track career on a high, before stepping into the marathon. It was really upsetting."

New Zealand's Jake Robertson in the 10,000m final at Hampden Park during the XX Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. 2 August 2014 New Zealand Herald Photograph By Greg Bowker.

Never one to let adversity knock them back, running's longest and most grueling distance is the Robertson's next target. With the Olympic cycle for the Tokyo Games already underway, the Kiwis wants to make the switch to the marathon this year to give themselves the best chance of winning a medal in 2020.

Jake, in particular, is excited about the switch.

"My half marathon and road running career has always been very good and something I always expected I'd be better at than track. So it's just about coming of age and realising I'm wasting my time on the track when I have incredible talent towards the road and the marathon.

"The thing with the marathon is that you can go a lot longer into your forties, unlike some of the events on the track where most people are thinking of retirement in their thirties. It's almost like a different sport."

The Robertsons involvement in the "SUB2" programme only reiterated their desire to move to the marathon. The UK-based projected is trying to help runners achieve a sub two-hour marathon with a heavy emphasis on sports science. It's a time many consider will take generations to achieve - the world record has been at 2:02:57 since 2014 when Kenya's Dennis Kimetto lowered it by 26 seconds.

Jake knows he's presently a long way from challenging that time, but he's hoping to topple Rod Dixon's long-standing national record of 2:08:59, set when winning the 1983 New York marathon.

"Zane and I want to debut in the marathon with a very fast time, that's why we're looking for a fast and official course. [Dixon's national record] is part of the task at hand, but certainly not the only goal."

It's another chapter in Jake Robertson's life story that's yet to be written, or fully told. It's now the 10-year anniversary of Jake and Zane's journey to Africa.

In 2006, Jake mingled with Kenyans when he raced in the World Cross Country Championships in Japan. He "mentioned the idea" of moving to Africa to train and his new-found friends urged him to do so. Not even 12 months later and the Robertson twins were barely living off bread and jam for a month and sleeping on a cement floor in a room barely big enough to constitute a laundry in a modest Kiwi home.

"We've been in life-threatening situations on many occasions. You know, having serious malaria in a town that's so remote there's no transport to hospital, election violence in 2008 in Kenya - people were getting massacred all over the streets."

Things became even scarier for the Hamilton-born brothers last year when Zane revealed they received death threats for talking about doping problems in Kenya.

They were one of many athletes who took to social media to criticise the International Olympic Committee over their decision to not impose a blanket ban on Russia for the Rio Games, after their state-sponsored doping programme was exposed.

The Robertson's stance prompted threats of necklacing, a gruesome act of execution where a tyre filled with petrol is forced over the victim and then set alight.

"We initially did fear for our lives, but then you realise most people in the streets are our friends and they have our backs," Jake says. "We know the culture of Kenyans. They're very emotional and quick to react in certain ways and will often say things that later they admit they don't really mean.

"We didn't name names for our own sake. It's too hard to say anything on this topic (doping) anymore. It's widely known in our community who is dodgy and who is not, so it's almost like fact, but you can't name them because it has to be proven first."

For the moment, life is a lot less complicated for Jake and Zane Robertson, who will spend the next month at the picturesque altitude training camp in St Moritz before Zane heads to the world championships and Jake returns to train in Africa.

The journey to the top for the pair is far from over.