Eliud Kipchoge: The shining light of a morally decaying nation

December 4, 2018 Eliud Kipchoge is presented with the Male athlete of the year award by IAAF President Sebastian Coe REUTERS

Olympic champion is bringing a smile on Kenyan faces while others are glorifying greed, dishonesty and corruption.

In this era of social media when millions can have or join conversation with a few taps of a key or touch pad, a worrying trend is emerging in Kenya, a country battling with a huge external debt, unemployment and escalating costs of living.

From runaway corruption in the public sector that has cost taxpayers billions of shillings, the rise of powerful national exam cheating cartels to the adulation of a new crop of celebrities known as ‘socialites’ who rise to fame through infamy, vice has become national staple.

The now fashionable urge to take short cuts to riches/success has permeated the Kenyan society and even athletics, the sport that has catapulted Kenya to global standing more than anything else, has not been spared.

In the last five years alone, over 60 Kenyan runners have been sanctioned for doping violations, a 15-fold increase prior to 2012 where only four cases had been recorded.

Instead of locking up those guilty of depravity, the fact they can enjoy their loot and publicly front their ill-gotten wealth largely due to a complicit justice system means that traditional ethos of minting success through walking the straight and narrow path have been discarded.

Colombia's athlete Caterine Ibarguen (L) and Kenyan athlete Eliud Kipchoge react after receiving the Male and Female athlete of the year award during the IAAF athlete of the year awards ceremony, on December 4, 2018 in Monaco. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)

One needs to go through conversation on social media networking sites that are the chief communication tools for young Kenyans to understand that today’s heroes are those who excel in depravity in a country of decaying morals.

On Tuesday night however, in the Principality of Monaco —the reputed playground of the global rich and the famous that perhaps tops the wish list of the local masterminds of grand theft — provided a fitting backdrop to a moment of national pride.

Eliud Kipchoge, 34, ascended to the centre-stage to receive the 2018 IAAF World Athlete of the Year award, becoming the second Kenyan to receive the high honour after fellow Olympic champion and record holder, David Rudisha, in 2010.

With that, Kipchoge, who ran a scarcely believable 2:01:39 world record in the marathon on September 16, signed off an extraordinary 2018 that also saw him named the Kenya UN Person and AIMS Male Marathoner of the year.

The beauty of Kipchoge’s ascendancy to the pinnacle of his sport is that his journey did not take a short curve but was the culmination of a 16-year journey where every obstacle proved to be inspiration for the next conquest.

“Patience is vital for any marathon runner to have in their day-to-day life. Patience applies everywhere: in training, in racing, and even when you are relaxing,” the ever magnanimous Kipchoge told the IAAF following his crowning.

For anyone struggling to comprehend the scale of his recent achievement, the three-time London and Berlin marathon winner won his sport’s equivalent of an Oscar, Grammy or Emmy in the global film, music or television awards.

“You have to be patient to train hard, in order to maintain your focus when you are running, and to maintain your thinking when you are outside training,” he added.

For someone who back in 2003 seemed to emerge almost overnight to become one of the world’s elite, Kipchoge has shown over the past 16 years that he is in it for the long haul.

His world U20 cross-country title in 2003 was followed five months later by winning the senior world 5000m title in Paris, beating distance greats Kenenisa Bekele and Hicham El Guerrouj in an unforgettable race.

At that time, many expected him to be crowned the World Athlete of the Year in the following few years but as it turned out, his remarkable track career on track by any definition ‘only’ yielded Athens 2004 bronze and Beijing 2008 silver with the second medal at the Osaka 2007 in between.

As polished as those performances were, they were not enough to propel Kipchoge to be crowned the best at his sport and it was not until Rudisha that Kenya, a global force in athletics, finally produced a winner of the coveted award.

Having found the route to the summit blocked by other heavyweights of his era, it took the darkness of monumental failure for Kipchoge to find a course that eventually, led him to his cherished dream of being recognised as the best in the planet.

It is well documented that in 2012, Kipchoge did not make it to line-up with Team Kenya for the London Olympics where he had silently been plotting to bag the elusive gold at the biggest sporting carnival on earth.

After taking sometime to soak in the heartbreak, he consulted with his trusted coach, Patrick Sang and the decision to turn to the marathon was taken.

What followed next was the start of perhaps the most dominant era in athletics and for good measure at the event acknowledged as the hardest in the sport, resulting in victory in nine of the 10 races started.

It took a world record to hand him his only loss over the classic 42.195km distance when countryman Wilson Kipsang beat him at the 2013 Berlin Marathon.

But despite the magnitude of that achievement, few would have predicted that Kipchoge would go on to achieve all that he has done.

His Olympic gold medal in 2016 and his recent marathon record of 2:01:39 were simply the culmination of two long-term relationships he has maintained since his early days in the sport, staying true to his coach Sang and his Global Sport Management.

“I cannot say I’m unbeatable; everybody is ready to beat me. To enjoy the sport you need to accept the results,” he stated in Monaco, serving another rich lesson to his compatriots.

Speaking to this writer in October, Kipchoge insisted he does not dwell on any personal milestone achieved since the challenge is always ahead but after the roaring 2018 he has had, we can only wait to see what else he has in store.

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