The Kiwi and the Kenyan will undergo a role reversal on Sunday when Martin van Barneveld heads Kip Kemei's support team in the Round The Bays half marathon.
Kemei is in Wellington as a training partner for van Barneveld, a resourceful triathlete who is leaving no stone unturned in his quest to qualify for the Olympic Games in London.
The unlikely pair have joined forces after van Barneveld spent 13 weeks in athletics hotbed Kenya to improve his running, which was letting him down in the multisport event.
Van Barneveld's stint went so well that when he returned home to Wellington a month ago, he, with some financial assistance from his parents, brought Kemei with him.
There is mutual benefit in the relationship – the 21-year-old Kemei hopes that his first trip overseas will become a stepping stone to an athletics scholarship in the United States.
"It's a good experience for me, training at sea level but it is windy," Kemei said.
"In Kenya we run at high altitude so over here it is a bit easier. I only started running two years ago. Right now I'm focusing on the half marathon and on the track, the 5000m, but in two years I want to start running marathons."
Kemei was thrilled to share the Newtown Park track with Nick Willis yesterday – "I am excited, he is one of the champions of New Zealand" – and the pair will lock horns in Friday's international mile race at St Pat's Silverstream.
"Just to give Nick Willis some company," Kemei said, with his immediate focus on Round The Bays.
Van Barneveld will only be running water for Kemei on Sunday but said his gamble to think outside the square – and New Zealand – was definitely paying dividends.
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