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Ethiopian runner Tesfaye Tsegaye Keress deftly positioned himself near the Techcombank Ho Chi Minh City International Marathon starting line in December after he deftly sliced his way through nearly 18, 000 runners.

Keress said his diminutive size – he stands just 1.62 metres (5.3ft) tall and weighs about 50kg (116 pounds) – allowed the 27-year-old to slink easily through the throngs of runners to secure a strategic spot near the front just before the starting pistol was fired, in what was billed as Vietnam’s biggest marathon.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s commercial capital, was where Keress had just arrived a few days prior. He was accompanied by fellow Ethiopian runner, Dereje Alemu Miko, who came to compete in the 21km (13-mile) half-marathon at the event where Keress would run the full 42.1km marathon.

The participation of Keress and Miko immediately piqued people’s interest in a race that consisted primarily of local Vietnamese runners in the thousands. Local media wanted to know who the competitors from East Africa were.

According to Keress, their trip to Vietnam was not solely due to their love of running, as Keress claimed to Al Jazeera.

Keress knew that taking first place in the Ho Chi Minh City marathon would earn him a $2, 500 cash prize.

He claimed that winning was crucial.

“I have a wife and two sons, and we live in Sendafa”, Keress said, naming his hometown in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, about 38km (24 miles) northeast of the capital, Addis Ababa.

We milk two cows and operate a chicken farm. We plan to expand our farm using the money from marathon races”, he said.

He would need to defeat Kenya’s Edwin Kiptoo, an East African who is currently the world’s best long-distance runner, in order to win.

Finding their feet on Vietnam’s streets

In Ethiopia, where Keress was born and who produced some of the world’s most renowned track athletes, Keress might be regarded as an average runner.

His personal best speed to complete a marathon is 2: 23: 50, which he achieved in 2023 in a marathon in Thailand. Although impressive, that speed would still prevent him from competing in the elite marathons because professional competitors in the Boston Marathon need to run at speeds of less than 2 hours, 13 minutes, respectively.

In Vietnam, however, Keress’s speed makes him a championship contender in a country where running has seen a steep rise in popularity.

Marathons have increased significantly in Vietnam over the past ten years, which is partly attributable to the country’s growing middle class’s desire to stay fit in its expanding, wealthy cities. There is also a new social side to running in Vietnam’s well-attended marathons, according to reports, which have seen&nbsp, a steep rise in popularity since the mid-2010s.

Following a years-long decline during COVID, many people who were trying to stay healthy returned to running as a popular sport. Local news site VnExpress reported in 2023 that a total of 41 full marathon races, with some 264, 000 entrants, took place in 27 provinces and cities across Vietnam that year. That’s 10 more marathons than Vietnam did in 2022.

With hundreds of thousands of runners taking part in a plethora of marathons up and down this country of 100 million people, major private sponsors have stepped in with prize money.

High-performing athletes like Keress and Kiptoo are now attracting them from East Africa’s elite running centers thanks to Vietnam’s numerous marathons and lucrative prizes worth thousands of dollars for winners.

East African athletes have long been a dominant force in competitive running, with world-famous track stars like Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge – who in 2019 became the first person&nbsp, in recorded history to run a 42-km marathon in less than two hours – and Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie who is considered one of the greatest long-distance runners in history, having set 27 world records.

Sporting scouts have long searched for promising talent in Kenya and Ethiopia, among other East African nations. Deals to compete in competitions around the world are often mediated by sport agents, who sponsor a runner and in return may take a cut of their winnings if successful. Additionally, there is a chance to capitalize on media coverage of individual and team victories gained from product and brand deals.

Such an arrangement brought Keress and Miko to compete in the Ho Chi Minh City marathon and half-marathon in December. A Thai promoter, who sponsors a team of runners, and who runs a business that specializes in energy supplements for athletes, both manage them.

Marathon running has also taken off in Thailand, along with a growing market for running gear and other services. Additionally, sponsors who sponsor brand names and their goods and services receive a high return when runners like Keress and Miko win races.

From a celebrity athlete to a prize hunter in Vietnam

When Edwin Kiptoo –&nbsp, who should not be confused with another younger Kenyan runner with the same name but of much greater international acclaim – first arrived in Vietnam in December 2023, he described how he was initially unprepared for the country and its costs.

With only 150, 000 Vietnamese dong (less than $6), Kiptoo arrived with the challenge of simply finding accommodation on the day of the race. In downtown Ho Chi Minh City, the cheapest room Kiptoo could find was double that price.

However, when Le Hoan, a neighborhood runner, made friends with Kiptoo the day before the race, they went to collect their running bibs. Learning of Kiptoo’s struggle to find somewhere cheap to stay, Le Hoan tried to help in the search for accommodation using a booking app. Still no success.

As Kiptoo had handed Le Hoan his passport during the search for somewhere to stay, the Vietnamese runner spotted that they were both born in the same year, and that the Kenyan’s birthday was on the same day as his wife’s. Le Hoan invited the Kenyan to his home, using the alignment of dates as a sign of good fortune. Over dinner with Le Hoan’s family, Kiptoo told them how he was running to support his family and had to save as much as possible.

On the eve of the massive Techcombank Ho Chi Minh City, Le Hoan paid for the runner’s stay in a hostel that night. The next day, Kiptoo would run faster than Vietnam’s two best marathon runners, Hoang Nguyen Thanh and Nguyen Van Lai, to win the race and pocket a $2, 500 cash prize on the spot.

“Mr. Hoan brought me home and served me meals with his family. He also rented me a hostel room for the night”, Kiptoo recounted to Al Jazeera. He said, “I offered to pay Hoan back after I won my first race, but he just declined.”

“The generosity of him and his family truly surprised me”, he added.

Kiptoo’s wins and public profile in Vietnam have rocketed since. He quickly rose to fame in Vietnam, and he is now sought after for his racing exploits. His winnings have also stacked up, earning an average of about $1, 000 each week for taking first place in races across the country.

But that was only the start.

In October 2024, Kiptoo signed a major sponsorship contract with sportswear company Do-Win Vietnam.

The business entered a “formal partnership with renowned runner Kiptoo” in a celebratory Facebook post!

“This collaboration will create new breakthroughs and further strengthen the brand’s position in the sports industry”, it said.

The agreement secures a visa that will allow Kiptoo to compete professionally in Vietnam, as well as paying for the runner’s living expenses, competition entrance fees, and crucially, secures a visa. In the past, visas and visa extensions for Africans in Vietnam have been problematic, partly due to a crackdown on foreigners involved in crime in the country.

Running for Kiptoo has a lot of security because he has a major sponsor behind him.

The 38-year-old, whose wife and daughter are still in Kenya, has even been given access to exclusive, publicly funded sports facilities and resources, which are typically reserved for provincial or national-level Vietnamese athletes.

Kiptoo said he has been able to fully dedicate his time to training, making him a force hard to beat in Vietnam’s marathons, despite the pressure of competing in the country.

“The support from Vietnamese people makes me feel at home”, Kiptoo told Al Jazeera.

Kiptoo’s success in Vietnam has not only earned him financial rewards, but it has also given him a sort of local celebrity status. He has been featured many times by local Vietnamese media because of his running success and his posts on Facebook receive thousands of reactions – mostly from his Vietnamese fans.

Vietnam remains a gamble for competitors.

A marathon, which usually lasts at least two hours for top-level runners, inherently carries risks as it challenges a person’s physical and mental limits.

Challenges confront African runners competing in Vietnam both during and after the race and throughout the many turns and turns their professional journey involves.

In March 2023, runners Kemboi Ezekiel from Kenya and Marta Tinsae Birehan from Ethiopia were full of hope on entering a race in Ho Chi Minh City after hearing that breaking the Vietnamese marathon record would win them a car. They discovered that the car prize was a one-time offer only available at the previous year’s race when they arrived in the country.

Despite their disappointment, both runners went on to compete. Marta unexpectedly collapsed while leading the women’s race, despite Ezekiel having little competition in the men’s race. She had mistakenly consumed an electrolyte drink at a water station, which upset her digestive system.

Even Kiptoo, who has won numerous Vietnam marathon championships and more experience, is unable to overcome difficulties. In late 2024, he was sponsored to compete in a marathon in Hanoi. A sponsor failed to register Kiptoo among the professional athletes competing due to a miscommunication. As a result, despite winning the marathon, Kiptoo only received an age-group prize of $200, rather than the $2, 100 winner’s takings. He claimed that “we all have to follow the rules,” and that he did not want to be upset about the outcome.

Running in the Ho Chi Minh City Marathon in December along an already familiar course and accustomed to the climate, Kiptoo cruised to victory over Keress and thousands of others to further cement his reign over the Vietnamese marathon scene.

Keress limped across the finish line, grimacing in pain, finishing just behind Kiptoo. He attributed his performance to fatigue from another recent marathon.

After receiving treatment in the recovery area, Keress’ pain subsided, but his frustration persisted until he realized he had won $1, 000 in prize money for third place, which helped him realize his goal of expanding his farm’s operation there. However, as his promoter will also take a cut of his winnings, his actual takings would not be so big.

The half marathon was won by his teammate Miko for $600.

Unpredictable risks

After their races, both runners were taken back to their hotel to rest before returning to Thailand, where they had been based for the previous six months in a training camp outside the capital, Bangkok. From travel and lodging to training plans, race entry and immigration visas, their Thai promoter is in charge of all aspects of their running careers in Southeast Asia.

For runners such as Keress and Miko, who have travelled little beyond their home countries, such management deals are indispensable. They described their Thai manager as a kind of father figure in an interview with Al Jazeera.

But the relationship seems closer to employee and employer, with the runners being very much bound by the overriding imperative of achieving good performance for their team and sponsor – in an unspoken power dynamic.

Keress and Miko described their plans to re-enteer Ethiopia and start living together.

They did not know how much prize money they would be bringing home with them as the cost of their travel expenses to competitions, accommodation and food are deducted from their winnings.

And not all marathons offer immediate pay for runners: some prizes take months to arrive, and many do not have financial security.

Despite the difficulty and uncertainty faced by prize-hunting runners in Vietnam, rumours about the country as a life-changing destination for athletes are spreading in East Africa, according to Kiptoo, Keress and others.

Kiptoo’s meager salary, which he earned before moving to Eldoret, in the Rift Valley region of Kenya, barely supported his family. Then COVID-19 hit and his family’s finances were devastated. He claimed that was the beginning of his commitment to running seriously as a means of escaping poverty.

His success in Vietnam has not only allowed him to support his family but also to buy several properties as investments in Kenya.

Kiptoo described how he never anticipated Vietnam to play such a significant role in his family’s daily life as an athlete.

“In Kenya, we watch a lot of Vietnamese films, but very few people actually know what the country is really like”, Kiptoo said.

At first, he didn’t know either.

Now with marathon running projected to continue growing in coming years, the draw of Vietnam for African runners is not likely to wane soon.

“Perspective more Kenyan athletes will visit this area in the future to compete in running competitions. But it’s not easy”, he said.