When our sport came of age

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By Mutwiri Mutuota

Kenyan sport enjoyed a renaissance this year with many highs and few lows in most disciplines.

Yet, the bloodletting and chaos that ushered in 2008 threatened to deal a fatal blow to the country’s sporting set up. Lest we forget, the Kenya Hockey League was derailed, Athletics Kenya programmes disrupted and some sportspersons were killed.

Former Olympian Luka Sang and marathoner Wesley Kiprotich died in Eldoret and Transmara, while World Marathon champion Luke Kibet was attacked by rowdy youth twice in a month.

Also affected were tennis, swimming, basketball, boxing and volleyball programmes and being an Olympic year, there was very little hope for sport.

However, like the proverbial phoenix, Kenya rose from the ashes and national cohesion was epitomised by the achievement of our sporting heroes.

For once, the usually chaotic national club football top competition managed by the Kenyan Premier League ran like clockwork.

To add to the flavour, our previously underexposed footballers played on a continental stage, thanks to a multimillion-shilling deal with pay television channel SuperSport.

At the end of the league, a fairytale that started 10 years ago when slum based outfit Mathare United upset the formbook to win the Moi Golden Cup ended with the team winning a maiden Kenyan title.

Also celebrating was arguably Kenya’s signature club Gor Mahia, who returned to continental football with victory in the President’s Cup, the successor of Moi Golden Cup.

Medal Harvest

Above all, national team Harambee Stars, buoyed by KPL money and an astute tactician Francis Kimanzi, are now only six games away from South Africa World Cup or at least the Nations Cup in Angola in 2010.

This was after Kimanzi, who also led Mathare to the league title, guided his side to the third and final round of qualifiers with home victories over Guinea, Namibia and Zimbabwe and an away draw with the latter.

However, the toast of Kenyan sport this year came at the majestic Bird’s Nest in Beijing where the country’s team to the Olympics brought home the biggest medal harvest from the Games.

In total, five gold and silver, and four bronze medals were won on the track. Pamela Jelimo and Nancy Jebet Lagat also became the first Kenyan women to win gold medals in 800m and 1500m.

Also in Beijing, Samuel Wanjiru won the men’s marathon gold in a course record.

With Kenyan runners winning 70 percent of marathons run worldwide each year, it was a crying shame that before Wanjiru, no Kenyan had ever won the top Olympic marathon medal.

Wilfred Bungei (800m men) and Brimin Kipruto, who became the second man in history to hold both the World and Olympic steeplechase titles, also won gold.

Beijing will also be recalled as the event where Jason Dunford became the first Kenyan to hold a world record in swimming.

Although Jason’s 100m-butterfly record lasted only ten minutes, it was a pioneering feat for a sport Kenyans are not famed to be adept in.

One of the blots from the Beijing Games was the dismal performance by our boxing team, once feared worldwide, with none of the four boxers progressing through the first round.

The performance of the ‘Hit Squad’ was a far cry from the Seoul Games 20 years earlier when the late Robert Wangila Napunyi became the first African to clinch a boxing gold.

In addition, team officials accompanying the team to China stood accused of disruptive tendencies and accommodating joy riders at the expense of competitors.

For instance, Grace Momanyi, the team vice-captain, was unceremoniously bundled out of the women’s 10,000m squad by officials. Her replacement, Peninah Arusei, finished a distant 18th.

Soon after the Olympics, it was revealed that 400m runner Elizabeth Muthuka, was banned for two years for Nandrolone abuse. She became the fourth Kenyan female athlete to be penalised for doping.

The national Paralympics team also did the country proud, winning five gold, four silver and two bronze medals in Beijing.

This led to the outpouring of frenzied celebrations countrywide led by the Government and corporate sector where millions were awarded to our heroes.

The crowning moment of the year came in September when Jelimo was confirmed Kenya’s first winner of the $1m dollar jackpot after winning six IAAF Golden League meetings in Berlin, Oslo, Rome, Paris, Zurich and Brussels.

Jelimomania

On her return, the two-lap queen was given red carpet treatment foreign to sporting heroes with the country’s two principles, President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga leading the way.

‘Jelimomania’ gripped the country like a plague as Kenyans, once divided along ethnic fissures and political affiliations, rose together to acclaim their star. She deserves to be named the country’s sportsperson of the year.