.png&width=32&height=32&type=webp)
The University of Mississippi Athletics
The Long and Short of It
11/3/2006 | Track and Field
By Daniel Snowden
Assistant Director, Athletics Media Relations
Ole Miss track and field sophomore Barnabas Kirui and senior John Yarbrough don't have a lot in common. Kirui is a native Kenyan and moved to the United States less than a year ago. Yarbrough is from Houston, Texas, and transferred to Ole Miss after playing football his freshman year at Tennessee-Chattanooga. Kirui is a distance runner who regularly runs 20 miles a day. Yarbrough is a sprint hurdler whose longest race ever was 800 meters.
While they don't have too much in common on or off the track, they both have been able to find success.
Yarbrough earned 2006 NCAA Outdoor All-America honors by finishing fourth in the 110-meter hurdles at the NCAA Championships last season. His time of 13.56 placed him second all-time in school history behind two-time NCAA national champion hurdler Antwon Hicks.
Kirui came to Ole Miss last season and as a freshman finished runner-up in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the SEC Outdoor Championships and in the process broke Farnando Perez's school record with a time of 8:45.61. As a freshman in cross country this season, Kirui has turned in three victories, including winning the SEC Championship last weekend, and has not finished outside the top 10 all season.
Success in track comes from hard work and training, and while both Kirui and Yarbrough train about 12 hours a week, they have different styles.
Technique and speed are the name of the game for Yarbrough.
"I do a lot of different types of training," said Yarbrough, the 2006 Drake Relays 110-meter hurdle champion. "Mainly I do a lot of starts, where I come out of the blocks and jump over one hurdle, then go back and start over and jump over two hurdles. I work my way up to all the hurdles. It helps you stay consistent over all the hurdles.
"I also do a lot of speed resistance training. We have a machine called the power pull, where you strap a parachute to your back and run with it. It really helps your starts to be able to pull out faster."
For Kirui success comes from endurance and stamina.
"Being a distance runner, my success is based on how many miles I run," said Kirui, a native of Kaplong, Kenya. "Every week I try to run about 100 miles. I get up and run 10 miles in the morning and 10 miles in the afternoon. I do that four days a week and the other days I run speed 800 meters. That is where you run 10 800 meters as fast as you can, with short breaks in between."
Each approaches the mental aspect of preparation and competition differently. Kirui considers every part of the preparation and competition, while Yarbrough's motto is "be cool."
"Mental preparation really matters a lot for me," said Kirui, who was named to the 2006 U.S. Track and Field Association All-Mideast region team. "What I do the day before a race really affects me on the day of the race. Whether it's what I eat the day before or anything I do, I feel like it could affect my race.
"Distance running is not just about your own running, because the people around you can affect your running. You have to watch the people around you. You have to learn to spot when someone is ready to make a move or when they are tried."
"I try not to focus at all on the race the day before," said Yarbrough, whose brother, Lonnie, is an All-American hurdler at Middle Tennessee. "I feel that if I think about the race I will over-think myself and make mistakes.
"I don't race against everyone else. I race with a time in my mind that I want to run, and if I run that time I will usually beat everyone. I know that I have my own lane and nobody else in the race can affect my running. As long as I go out and do the same things that I do in practice, I will have a successful race."
They both have found success in their events and don't plan on trying new ones. Barnabas says the shortest race he has competed in is the one-mile and John won an 800-meter race in high school, but doesn't think he is going to give up the hurdles.
"I ran the 800 meters one time," said Yarbrough. "I won the race, but I just sprinted. I went out as fast I as could on the first lap. Everyone was telling me to slow down, but I was like, I got this.' I was about 200 meters in front of everybody else when I ran out of gas, but I was able to coast to victory."
