Cheating circus continues in 14th edition of Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon

It was still the same annual circus as cheats were nabbed at the 14th edition of the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon held in Nairobi on Sunday.

This time round it was 43-year-old John Mwangi Nyaruai whose 40 days came to a halt after he was caught cheating in the hotly contested men’s 21km race.

The father of two from Lolomalek farm in Lewa Conservancy cleared the tedious race 20 minutes ahead of the struggling pack.

He even had a grace period to relax as he awaited to welcome the runners up and the rest of the fold who were on the loop struggling to outdo each other toward the finish line.

Not known to Nyaruai were the organisers who had kept in touch with the race proceedings, occasionally announcing the bib numbers that were commanding top three positions as the race unfolded.

But the axe soon fell on Nyaruai when the top three finishers comprising Reuben Limaa (1:02.53), runners up Dominic Kipyegon (1:03.14) and third placed Kenneth Rotich (1:03.27) arrived and disowned him.

“We did not see this man at the start line, we never saw him anywhere during the race. He is openly lying,”Limaa, whose title was threatened by Nyaruai, narrated while panting.

Limaa’s sentiments were corroborated by Kipyegon who said they gave each other a chase including out-sprinting each other at interval toward the finish line but Nyaruai was nowhere to be seen.

Nyaruai, while defending himself, said he is an accomplished athlete who can never lie as he had even bagged a third place finish with his Lolomalek farm group in the corporate race at the Safaricom Lewa Marathon in June.

Bank’s representative Tom Indimuli and Athletics Kenya Nairobi branch chairman Barnaba Korir said Nyaruai was part of the fraudsters being nabbed in the race year in year out.

“After thoroughly examining the footages and comparing notes with our team on the ground we have decided to strip Nyaruai of the title. Limaa is the outright winner,” Indimuli said.

Last year, Julius Njogu from Milele camp in Naivasha was caught cheating after he out-sprinted Eldoret based Shadrack Kiptoo to claim runners up position in the men’s 42km.

Njogu was immediately arrested and handed over to the police even though no harsh penalty was met on him.