The gold at last comes to Uganda after 40 years of waiting but what is its legacy?
Aug 24, 2012
The Gold has at last come and it comes in the marathon a race whose history is well documented. But let us not forget the uniqueness of this race. It is a race that if anything all of us must have met in our primary six history.
By James William Mugeni
The Gold has at last come and it comes in the marathon a race whose history is well documented. But let us not forget the uniqueness of this race. It is a race that if anything all of us must have met in our primary six history.
Those who remember Phaedepidis the Greek runner who took the news about the war victory Greece had registered cannot say the marathon was not introduced to us at an early age. It became a race of the modern Olympics based on that history of conquest. Need us to say at last we have conquered the world! But who have we conquered?
All excuses are being given and the recipient of all these excuses and blame game is on the government. I stand out on the field of controversy to defend the Government. I have an issue of contention with sports administration which is not up to the task.
Whereas athletes are quick to say they have no facilities but let us ask ourselves what facilities do we need to run a marathon? I have been to Iten and watched marathon runners training for months. All they do they come in hundreds at a meeting point and all you see they separate into distances those doing 10,20,30,35 kilometers in the morning and off they go.
They come back and all you see athletes looking for what to eat. Funny enough the food is beans mixed with maize, soar milk, sukuma wiki,etc. Then when you listen to their stories it is athletes who got lost in the forests and those who could not match the pace.
Now the science bit of the race is massage, sauna and treating any injuries usually over use syndromes which disadvantaged athletes like those of Uganda do not access. So what takes a Ugandan athlete to Kenya? Is it a forest, massage, sauna and treatment? The maize, beans Sukuma wiki,soar milk? Which are the facilities? Most of the maize, beans comes from Uganda Kapchorwa. Could we say we follow our maize and beans?
The facility that offers all these massage, sauna and treatment belongs to an athlete called Lorna a former cross country world champion who started a foundation for girls but now open to everybody. This is where I want to target sports management, we have had success stories in Uganda beginning with Akii-Bua and through it we have had Kamoga, the Kiprop, Kipsiro, Inzikuru and now the golden boy.
As I write he is close to 500million shillings rich on paper. How is administration going to help this athlete with all this money that can turn out to be a fortune to other athletes? You need an athlete with a vision supported by administration with vision.
The facilities in Iten are not from government of Kenya they are for individual athletes. Kipsiro and team after the Commonwealth games just swallowed more than 100million in parties. Kenyan athletes would have invested this money.
Let us be sincere on this one we cross to Kenya because Kenyan government allows us to have our passports cleared for months but when in Kenya, the houses, gymnasiums, food, name them all are investments that come from successful athletes whose stories are not any different from ours.
The Government has given us the investment environment, it has given us peace how many of us were able to go to Eldoret after the violent elections? Now we are all praying for peaceful elections in Kenya including the foreigners as in Europeans, Americans etc. Let us sort out administrative problems in sports before we can appeal to government.
This government is such that the more organised and smart you are the better you can get a listening ear. As sportsmen, we have failed to position ourselves as an interest group. We are ambassadors but who knows this? With few athletes we have had few successful stories but the management issues stand out.
Stephen Kiprotich is a golden boy but let it not be like putting a golden ring on the nose of a pig. A golden moment can always arise in this country but for the 40 years all that glitters has not been gold. Kenyan athletes establish a legacy they know they depend on athletics and all their success stories come from a primitive environment.
America, Great Britain, Germany all camped in Kenya just to exploit a primitive environment which we ideally have. Our athletes should learn to be ambassadors. Unfortunately, this Gold was made in Iten and this will strengthen the belief in Iten-Home of champions. I pray that Stephen Kiprotich gives to all people of the world his Kapchorwa address. In Iten we would have missed the point.
Chairman Medical and Scientific Commission Uganda Athletics Federation.