Posted: October 29, 2004

Athletics: Running Into Trouble

Proficiency at long distance running has brought fame and fortune to many Kenyans. But it has also made them an easy target for the lawless elements that roam a country riven with major social and economic problems.

John Ngugi, the 1992 Olympic gold medallist and five-time world cross country champion had to move from his isolated farm to the nearby town of Nyahururu, to avoid threats of attack. Boston Marathon champion, Lameck Aguta thought he’d escaped lightly from car accident, until the first arrivals on the crash scene recognised him, and beat him so badly while stealing his money, that he has never recovered from the brain damage, which ended his career. And just two weeks ago, Athens Olympic marathon silver medallist, Catherine Ndereba counted herself fortunate to be in a bedroom, where she could hide at her in-laws’ house, when an armed gang broke in and stole goods and cash.

Ondoro Osoro thinks he was fortunate too, although it seemed far from that at the time. Osoro leans forward, puts a finger to his throat and says softly, “this is the exit wound, and this – he turns his head round, and touches the back of his neck – is where the bullet went in”.

Osoro, 36, had just been selected for the Sydney Olympic marathon four years ago, following the fastest debut in history, 2hr 6min 54sec, in winning the Chicago Marathon 1998. The day after selection, he drove his wife, Jemima, and their then three-year-old daughter, Dorris to visit his sister-in-law, in their home province of Kisii.

He thought little about the men admiring his Land Cruiser, as they got back in to leave, until he noticed one of them was training a gun at his pregnant wife. “Suddenly, there was another one at my door, with a gun. They pushed my wife out of the car, then me, and the other one got in the back. One of them said, ‘shoot him,’ and they shot me, and drove away with my sister-in-law and my daughter. They released them after seven kilometres.

“I thought I was dying, it was like I was in a swimming pool of blood. I was unconscious, but I could hear someone praying for me, telling me that I am not going to die”.

The Good Samaritan was right, but it took several litres of blood, two months in hospital in Nairobi and a month with neurologists in London, doing brain and spinal scans, to ascertain the extent of paralysis on his right side, before he began physical re-education.

“I went back to Chicago in September, 2001, and surprised everyone by finishing seventh in 2.11,” he recalls proudly. “I was still weak in my right arm and leg, but that’s when I knew I could run properly again”.

He has run three other marathons since then, his best being in the Rock ‘n’ Roll race, which he won in 2.09.38, in San Diego last year. Now he is readying himself for Sunday’s EuroCity Marathon in Frankfurt, Germany.

“I don’t know if I’m 100% yet, you never know that in a marathon until you’ve run the whole 42 kilometres, you could get to 41, and have to walk. But I’ve prepared hard, you have to for a marathon. You cannot succeed if you cannot commit yourself, but I like hard work. I want to do it to my best”.

The Land Cruiser was recovered two years later, in neighbouring Tanzania, but most of the time, it stays in Osoro’s compound, and he drives, in his manager’s words, “the shoddiest pick-up truck you ever saw”.

“I don’t know if they knew me,” says Osoro philosophically, “but robbers think all runners have money. It’s a sad story, sometimes I don’t like to remember it”.