Nipped in the bud

By James Munyeki

As the world celebrates the first anniversary since the death of the late Olympic champion Samuel Wanjiru, local athletics fraternity is still yet to recover from the shock of his death.

 Many athletes believe a better replacement is yet to be found for the late hero who conquered the world.

The late marathoner died at his Nyahururu home after allegedly falling from the balcony of his house on May 16 last year.

One year down the line, bearing the loss has been hard for his family the athletics fraternity in Nyandarua and the country at large.

Wanjiru, known as the ‘pride of Nyandarua’ due to his excellent performance in long distance races, first hit news when he won the Fukuoka International cross-country at the age of 16 in 2003.

retained title

By then, he was living in Japan after he got a scholarship.

He retained the same title in 2004 and went on to win the Chiba International cross-country the same year.

“This is when we knew we had born a champion. By winning the two titles, the country was proud of him,” says his former coach Robert Kioni.

Little did Kenyans know that better things were forthcoming.

At the age of 18, Wanjiru broke the half marathon world record in 2005 in the Rotterdam Half Marathon in a time of 59.16, beating Paul Tergat’s half-marathon record of 59.17 minutes.

“At this time, he had trained hard in Nyahururu and Eldoret and was confident of victory. He never thought of losing it and to the surprise of many Kenyans, he won,” says Kioni.

Come 2007, Wanjiru decided to go try the marathon against the wish of many of his friends who felt he should have stuck to half marathon.

In December 2007, he made his debut at Fukuoka Marathon and won with a course record of 2.06.39.

According to his mother, Hannah Wanjiru, who is yet to come to terms with the death of her first-born son, it is then that it dawned on her that the son was a real champion.

 “I had advised him not to exhaust all his energy by running big races, but he proved to me that he was a fighter. He won and immediately telephoned me to prove that he was a real marathoner,” the mother told FeverPitch.

She says that it was then that he set his eyes on the 2008 London marathon.

“I thought this was the right time to give him the full support and he did not disappoint. He finished second,” she says.

In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he won the marathon gold medal in an Olympic record time of 2.06.32 and became the first Kenyan to win an Olympic gold in the marathon.

In 2009, he hit the headlines again by winning the London and Chicago marathons after running the fastest times ever recorded in the United Kingdom and United States respectively.

excellent performer

“To date, we have never got his replacement in Nyandarua County. He was an excellent performer,” says Nyandarua Athletics Kenya Secretary Lawrence Miano.

 “It is sad that Wanjiru died at a very young age, but he had already achieved a lot in life. He was a very dedicated man when it came to training and always achieved what he wanted,” he observes.

He was a mentor to all his friends and they all wanted to be like him.

His closest friend Norman Mathathi, a brother to athlete Charles Mathathi, no one can fit into his shoes.

“He was ever confident whenever it came into competitions and he took his training seriously. He was a go getter,” says Mathathi.