Claudio Berardelli, who guides the career of the marathon world record holder, talks about his coaching philosophy and the lessons he learns from the “outsider” Save.
Italian coach Claudio Berardelli heads the 2 Running Club in Kapsabet, Kenya, and is best known for guiding Sebastian Soi to a marathon world record of 1:59:30. A sports science graduate from the University of Milan, Berardelli initially worked with Kenyan athletes who were in Italy to prepare for competitions in Europe. Based in Kenya since 2004, his training group, in addition to Soy, now includes 2025 New York Marathon winner Benson Kipruto, Olympian and world 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyon and former London Marathon winner Amos Kipruto.
How did you first get into coaching?
I had a group of friends at university and we were very passionate about endurance. One of them, Vincenzo Lancini, eventually became a physiotherapist. He is now the physiotherapist in my group, but at the time he was employed as a trainer by Rosa Associati and he asked me if I wanted to be an assistant.
I was still a university student, so for the first two years I mainly worked with Kenyan athletes who had settled in Italy for a long time. I can’t say that I was training, but I was studying. I had no idea about athletics. I was not a runner myself. I was a junior level cyclist so to be honest I didn’t know much about running.
In January 2004, I took my first trip to Kenya, and what was supposed to be a one-week trip turned into a 22-year journey. You never finish learning here. You keep seeing situations upon situations, so it may seem the same, but it’s never the same because when you’re dealing with individuals, it’s always very different. It hasn’t always been easy and I’ve had to face various challenges, including a different culture where I’ve had to adapt and compromise.
When did you start 2 Running Club and what was the meaning of the name?
I left Rosa in 2015. At first I was ready to take a gap year to reflect a bit on the first part of my African life, but then quite a large group of athletes asked me to continue to support them. From there I founded 2 Running Club in 2016.
The initial idea was that I wanted to show the athletes something else, that it’s not just about winning. As a provocation I told them. “Being a champion is much more than just number one. you can be a champion with your attitude, your mindset, even when you’re losing.” So we called it 2.
Probably the main thing that changed is that I was alone. I was free to make my own mistakes, correct them, and explore a little more. It wasn’t as easy as I say, you can imagine all the politics, but I’m happy with how things are going.
How did you first connect with Sebastian?
Sabastyan came to me by chance. He almost gave up on the chance to turn pro, but then his uncle (Olympian Abraham Chepkirwok, Ugandan 800m record holder 1:43.72) who is a neighbor of my assistant coach Abel Kiprop Mutai (London 2012 Olympic bronze medalist) asked if anyone could help Abel because he could to help him. him a chance. My initial reaction was: “Okay, just because you ask, Abel. bring the boy and we’ll see what he can do.”
I didn’t know much about Sebastian, but he had tried to go pro after leaving school and had joined various bands. He’s a very quiet guy, very humble, so he probably wasn’t aggressive enough to really ask anyone. “Give me a chance, I want this, I want that.”
I met Sebastian right after the Covid. At first he started training with my trailer group and he did cross country and a little running, but then I noticed he was doing well with longer things and I moved him to the marathon group. In January 2022, he ran his first road race in the Seville Half Marathon. He had to be paced, but he won it in a course record of 59:02, and I said, “Wow, this guy is a good person.”
What do you think is special about Sabastyan?
“Sevilla” was a key moment for me to understand that I am not dealing with an ordinary runner, but with an extraordinary athlete. From there, things progressed very quickly, and Sabastyan gained confidence in his potential, his abilities, and his training.
I mean, I’ve coached, and I coach, athletes who have been some of the best in the world in the marathon, but Sebastian is special. What he can do, what he can do, how he does it.
He always seems to be in control, not only during training, but also in life. Even tactically, when he competes, he always seems to know what to do. Honestly, I’m still totally getting who this guy is because he’s really special. I described him as someone who has all the ingredients to be an extraordinary athlete, but perhaps the key aspect is how he takes all the ingredients and puts them together.
Over the years, I’ve known athletes who were super talented, capable of doing incredible things, but they couldn’t put the pieces together, so they could easily get lost here and there for various reasons. It’s an ongoing process, with the help of experts, to discover more about and learn from Sebastian, because it’s not every day you meet an athlete like him.
What do you think needs to happen to make him run even faster, sub 1:59?
That’s a very interesting point, because after all, Sabastyan has only run four marathons. First, in terms of long-term adaptations, time will still help Sebastian develop physiologically and biomechanically.
Even from a training perspective, I think we still have quite a gap. There are things that we have gradually introduced, but have not fully developed. For example, strength and conditioning, which is a key aspect when it comes to longevity. Andy Jones did a lot with Eliud (Kipchoge) and I read as much as I could from him.
There’s definitely been a natural progression in terms of volume and intensity over Sebastian’s four marathons, and I think there’s still room for improvement in terms of intensity and density. There is no doubt that we are still at the beginning of the journey.
There is a balance, of course, as more is not always better. There’s a Spanish author I really like, Manuel Sola Arriona, who wrote The Nature of Training. “Complexity Science Applied to Endurance Performance” book. He explains that as humans we have a very complex system and we have to be very careful about changing one side or moving things around because we can cause more side effects than benefits.
We had a bit of an injury setback in December 2025, so from mid/late January we decided (based on what we’d seen in previous seasons) that he probably had the rest of his training ability, so we took a bit of a risk to turn up the volume and up the intensity. His body started to respond very well and at the end of the preparations for London we felt that there was something very, very good in his body, but of course we did not go to London with the idea of ​​running a sub.
One interesting thing that Sabastian told me was that when the pacemakers were done and he took over, his watch was showing a 2:50 min/km split and he was feeling very comfortable, very steady, so he was trying to pick up the pace a bit, like he was discovering what he could do and was going towards 2:45 seconds. In fact, he never realized that he
was running a world record or even second two until the final stretch when he saw the clock at the finish line.
Who has been your biggest coaching influence?
I can’t really identify one person, but observation drives my coaching philosophy, and I would say that the athletes I work with have been my mentors. For example, at the beginning of my journey I was theoretically coached by (three-time London Marathon winner, two-time New York City Marathon winner) Martin Lelli, but I always say that Martin was my coach to become a coach. He coached me more than I coached him.
I started learning every chance I could, from books, scientific articles, courses, and that’s what I still do to keep myself up to date. You can communicate with whoever you want with the internet and whatnot, but I also like to communicate with people and have proper discussions.
Of course, I had people who directly or indirectly showed me how to be and how not to be. You learn in different ways. There was the Italian school, Dr. Rosa, Renato Canova, Lucio Gigliotti, but I also took courses with ALTIS, and I recently mentioned Brad Stuhlberg on social media, an author I also like to read.
Coaching is multifaceted, you have to pick a little bit from everywhere, and you may never become a true expert in one particular subject, but you do have to know a little bit of everything, which is a little difficult at times.
What do you think are the main qualities of a good coach?
Compassion is very important. As much as we try to learn and understand coaching, I think in my opinion, when I don’t develop a deep, genuine relationship with each athlete, I can’t give my best.
A coach must have the courage to have a double CV, good with all the good performances, but also bad with situations they may not have been able to do right or athletes they were not able to help to perform at their best.
And sometimes you have to be brave enough and honest enough to tell the athlete: “I’m not a good coach for you, you should find another coach” because you can’t waste their time.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learned so far as a coach?
Remember that the athlete is at the center of the project. As coaches, we tend to put ourselves at the center of the project sometimes without even realizing it, but we
no. It’s always the athlete. The athlete is driving, and we are sitting next to him, giving a little direction.
I don’t feel that I am a coach, but I do the work of a coach. I often suffer from imposter syndrome, to be honest, I especially train athletes like Sabastyan. I thought I had pretty much seen everything in 22 years here in Kenya, and then suddenly this guy shows me the really impossible. And then you ask yourself: “How much did I really invest in what he did?” I consider being a coach a major achievement. I hope that one day I will feel that I am actually a coach.
This article also appears in a special edition of Sub-two AW magazine, out now!
