By James Bakama

After a hectic year, Stephen Kiprotich is not about to return to the race track.

The Olympic marathon champion is keeping a low profile until early next year when he will choose what competition to start off the season with.

Elite runners usually don’t enter more than one marathon in a year. Health experts recommend that one should not run more than three marathons in a year.

Kiprotich started off this closing season by finishing third in the Tokyo International marathon.

He was again third at a 10km race in Sheffield in May before crowning the year in August with gold at the London games.

“He has never broken training but he will only return to serious competition in 2013,” said Kiprotich’s manager Godfrey Nuwagaba.

After the Olympics, one of the big attractions in the 42.195 km event is the New York Marathon on November 4. A $130,000 (sh336m) reward awaits the winner.

Nuwagaba explained that Kiprotich will together with his foreign manager Jos Hermens decide which race to start within 2013. Kiprotich will later in the year be eyeing a medal at the World Championships in Moscow.

Kiprotich shot into the headlines on the last day of the Olympics when he won Uganda’s first gold at the prestigious quadrennial Games in 40 years.

President Yoweri Museveni rewarded Kiprotich with sh200m on top of promising to build a three bedroomed house for his parents.

Corporates under a fundraising campaign led by Vision Group’s Chief Executive Robert Kabushenga also mobilized a sh300m reward for Kiprotich.