Thoughts from the 42nd IAAF World X-Country Championships: Kampala 2017
Joshua Cheptegei – the twenty-some Ugandan long-distance Athlete who missed out on athletic history by less than 60 seconds at the Kampala-held IAAF Cross-Country Champs in the Senior Men’s race last weekend, belongs right at the top of this nation’s hall-of-fame, less for what he failed to achieve, or what he might have achieved – and more for what he wrung his spirit and literally broke his body trying to accomplish.
Cheptegei
– you have our eternal gratitude, for doing no less than running the
race of your life.
Having
led the race for 9.7 kilometers, Cheptegei simply crushed physiologically – so
he, eventually, not only lost gold to Kenya’s Kamworor, who was in far better
shape and was the competition’s defending Champion – but Cheptegei didn’t even
place among the top twenty.
What is
clear, from watching the competition footage, is that Cheptegei’s body merely
shut down in the last 300 or so meters.
Being
present in the flesh on race-day, I can of course more than attest to the
eye-witness unfolding of the lamentable incident.
A good
Kenyan friend of mine and athletics aficionado, Nephat Maritim –
who made the long trip from his work-posting in Dares Salaam to
cheer on his countryman
Kamworor, attributed Cheptegei’s tragedy to a possible glucose
inadequacy or sugar deficiency.
In
technical parlance, Nephat informed me – this phenomenon is
usually referred to as ‘‘hitting the wall’’.
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Extreme left is Nephat, and between us is an official of the UAF, earlier in the day at the finish line |
There are fellow Ugandans of course, no doubt sincerely concerned, whose superior ‘‘spiritual consciousness’’ led them to blame Kenyan wizardry for the dramatically unfortunate turn of events.
Some
among this number went as far as tracing the ill-fate to
Cheptegei’s own clansmen in Kapchorwa – whose jealousy of the runner’s
potential success incentivized their bewitching of him.
For this school of rationale – a mean-spirited grandaunt somewhere, a barren and bitter spinster on the village, or a vile-hearted stepmother from a polygamous childhood are to blame.
The
argument is redolent of the experience Moses Kipsiro – another
star Ugandan athlete and Commonwealth Games Medalist had a few years back, when
he publicly blamed his sickness and family troubles, which affected his running
performance, on a witch-hunt mounted by envious members of his village in
Kapchorwa.
This
appeal to superstition, something many of our people do almost instinctively
whenever tragedy strikes in their personal lives or in social situations –
would be a humorous pettiness, if it wasn’t a woeful distraction and symptom of
the deeper attitudinal malaises from which our people suffer.
But
staying with Cheptegei and 26th March, 2017.
To add to
the high anticipation of running for a host-nation, the presences of the
country’s President – Y.K. Museveni, and his lately
controversial First Lady; saddled the young Cheptegei with tremendous pressure
to deliver on home-turf.
Like a
band of hysterical children, the jubilant but naive Ugandan crowd egged him on,
succeeding very much at getting Cheptegei prematurely excited – the likeliest
reason he ultimately burnt too much energy in trying to establish a commanding
lead much earlier than he should have.
The
simple truth is that Geoffrey Kamworor, the impressive Kenyan
athlete who eventually won, had more experience than our Cheptegei – who
thought to shake off the pack with a whole lap and half of the race left.
Evidently
bad strategy, for someone running singly against, and sandwiched between a
well-coordinated Kenyan team of five athletes who are known, historically but
also notoriously, to function as a self-supporting unit.
Unlike Jacob
Kiplimo – the amazing youngster who won Uganda’s only and first-ever
X-Country gold in the men’s Junior race, Cheptegei was racing against far
fitter and far swifter runners, who had beaten him at recent Athletic Meets.
Kiplimo,
on the other hand, is the reigning World Junior Champion over the 10,000 meter
track race – where he beat the Kenyans hands-down last July in the
final of the IAAF World U20-Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
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The opportunist in me couldn't help grabbing a celebrity moment with the young hero, Jacob Kiplimo |
What
Cheptegei did therefore – leading the World Champion Kamworor, for
so long (13 minutes) and by such a margin (almost 50m) was both unprecedented
and heroic.
He
staggered to the finish line, like one inebriated or maimed, without falling to the ground or getting
assistance from any competition official, which would have resulted in
disqualification.
He was
only shoved forward once by a fellow competitor, an Ethiopian runner who
must’ve been startled to see the erstwhile race-leader wobbling drunkenly in
his path when twenty other racers had finished the race already.
Cheptagei’s
resilience proved to be very important as he ended up being Uganda’s fourth and
final scorer in 30th place – enabling Uganda to bag the Team Bronze ahead
of Eritrea by just three (3) points.
Cheptegei,
in the hearts of many of us, you will forever be an unrivalled hero for the
fighting-spirit and raw sportsmanly brilliance you displayed.
It didn’t
matter that the young brother didn’t fit the innumerable portfolios we place
premiums upon today – he isn’t extracted from my Bantu ethnicity,
he doesn’t speak my Runyakitara tongue, he certainly doesn’t
worship the God I do.
It didn’t matter the reason he, at grave risk to life and limb, flung himself unrestrained into the race.
Perhaps it was the alluring promise of $30,000 he couldn’t refrain from.
Whatever the reason was – the consequence of his endeavor was to galvanize our teetering fabrication of a country, albeit for a short interval only.
It didn’t matter the reason he, at grave risk to life and limb, flung himself unrestrained into the race.
Perhaps it was the alluring promise of $30,000 he couldn’t refrain from.
Whatever the reason was – the consequence of his endeavor was to galvanize our teetering fabrication of a country, albeit for a short interval only.
For those
twenty-seven minutes that Cheptegei led the race, he was a hero – our
hero – and all these other petty and subjective labels we otherwise
hold-onto took a back seat in lieu of this cosmetic Ugandan ‘identity’ that’s
both been our blessing and curse this past half-century of our self-rule.
More than
anything, Cheptegei (alongside Kiplimo and their several other of their
remarkable predecessors) gave us better reason than any fiery patriotic
speech ever delivered by our spurious political heads, or associated appeal to
abstract nationalism, as to why our ex-British colony’s flag deserves to fly
high – if only for a few fleetingly precarious moments.
For years
to come, millions of little ‘‘Ugandan’’ boys and girls will look at the footage
of that race and draw inspiration for their own undoubtedly troubled life’s
races – on and off the track.
In a country that sorely wants for authentic heroes, for sons and daughters who may restore to us a severely depleted confidence in our intrinsic worth – Cheptegei came along waving the flambeau of redemption.
Only few other persons or assemblages have managed this miraculous feat before – the men’s soccer team, Stephen Kiprotich after his 2012 Olympic victory, and the very flamboyant kickboxing sensation Moses Golola as he primed for his face-off with the Hungarian Naggy in 2011.
The young Chep now joins those very quotidian, yet redoubtably remarkable ranks.
In a country that sorely wants for authentic heroes, for sons and daughters who may restore to us a severely depleted confidence in our intrinsic worth – Cheptegei came along waving the flambeau of redemption.
Only few other persons or assemblages have managed this miraculous feat before – the men’s soccer team, Stephen Kiprotich after his 2012 Olympic victory, and the very flamboyant kickboxing sensation Moses Golola as he primed for his face-off with the Hungarian Naggy in 2011.
The young Chep now joins those very quotidian, yet redoubtably remarkable ranks.
What a
race, Joshua!
What a
spirit!
Cheptegei, in that fateful final totter
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A few moments before the start of the champs, I was treacherously & unpatriotically hobnobbing with the Kenyan fans' contingent, alongside Nephat |
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