Before the boom

One man here still remembers what Iten was like before all this happened: Brother Colm O'Connell, former headmaster at St Patrick's High School, the alumni of which include Rudisha, Vivian Cheruiyot, Matthew Birir and Brimin Kipruto.

O'Connell first came to Iten to teach in 1976.

"It was just a scattering of houses and a school called St Patrick's," he said. "That was really the starting point of what Iten eventually became, and what we see today."

The town's transformation started "when the sport became professional", he said.