Prepare to see an icon run. The name is Keino

The past will confront the present on the streets of London tomorrow when the Kenyan legend Kipchoge Keino lines up alongside Ethiopia's modern phenomenon Haile Gebrselassie. By the finish line there will probably be two hours between the 28-year-old and the 63-year-old but it is another illustration of why this marathon is such a special event, unique in the sporting calendar.

In the opinion of many, Gebrselassie is the greatest runner of all time, having won world titles at distances between 1500 metres and the half-marathon. The only man to come remotely close to that type of range was Keino, who was world class at every distance between 800m and 10,000m. He even won an Olympic steeplechase title on one of his first attempts at the event.

"He was one of my heroes," Gebrselassie said of Keino. "I remember when I first started running, the runners I heard the most about were [Abebe] Bikila and Keino. Everyone had heard of Keino."

But while Gebrselassie will be hoping to set a world-best tomorrow, Keino will join most of the other starters in the 32,000 field by taking part for charity. Of all the great runners out of Africa, none is remembered with more admiration and affection than Keino.

He was nicknamed The Flying Policeman, a star with a long, loping stride and a gap-toothed grin. His greatest feat came in the 1968 Mexico Olympics when he won the 1500m gold medal with a Games record of 3min 34.9sec.

This will be Keino's first marathon since 1958, when he finished third in the Eldoret event. He is a bit wider round the stomach these days and does not move with the same grace but he still runs six to nine miles a day on his farm at Eldoret in Kenya's Rift Valley.

"I've never run with so many people before but hopefully I will find some nice people to run with on the day," he said. "Running a fast time is no longer the important thing. I just want to make sure I finish and help people in my country by raising money for Oxfam."

His affection for the charity stretches from the day it came to his village and fitted a water pump, which has made things easier at the orphanage he runs with his wife Phylis. In the past 20 years 400 youngsters have passed through the farm known simply as Children's Home.

They have 85 children living with them at present. They are housed, fed and educated, call the Keinos "mother and father" and carry the legendary name. "They are all my children," Keino said. "My own mother died when I was three. I don't want anyone else to grow up with that problem.

"I came into this world with nothing and I will leave with nothing. While I am here I should be mindful of those people who need help. We can't help everyone, but we do what is within our ability."

It is for his humanity as much as what he has achieved on the track that Keino enjoys icon status. "Keino is known not just as a great runner in my country," says Paul Tergat, the Kenyan maestro who won the world cross-country title five years in a row. "More importantly, he is known as a great man. That's his true legacy."

Among those Keino will be running with tomorrow is Ian Stewart. It will be their first meeting in a race since the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh when Stewart beat Keino in one of the most memorable races ever. Many years later Keino revealed he had received death threats on the eve of the race. He later won the 1500m.

Keino's other memories of Britain are far happier: he spent seven months in military training at Aldershot, and then ran his first sub-four-minute mile at White City in 1965.

Keino returns to Eldoret on Monday to receive a delegation of 54 from the International Association of Athletics Federations who are due to visit a training centre he runs. There, they will doubtless see the runners who aim to follow in Keino and Gebrselassie's footsteps.

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