Kenyan Athletes Coping With Political Unrest By David Monti (c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved January 4, 2008
While
the horrifying death of Kenyan Olympian Lucas Sang and the wounding of
world marathon champion Luke Kibet have made headlines, much of the
information coming out of Kenya from the athletics community is that
most athletes remain safe, but training and travel has been curtailed
due to the obvious dangers.
Agent Lisa Buster reports that world
marathon champion Catherine Ndereba and her husband Anthony Maina are
safe, but housebound in Nairobi. Road runner Linus Maiyo, who lives in
Eldoret, is unable to train and is staying indoors.
Tom
Ratcliffe, who manages marathoners Stephen Kiogora, Evans Rutto and Ben
Maiyo says that his athletes are fine, but hesitant to go out for
training. "Most guys are staying in their home areas, as they want to
stay close to their families and do not want to travel," he wrote in an
e-mail message.
Miler Elkanah Angwenyi is at home in Nakuru,
according to his manager, Hussein Makke, but the situation is not good.
"Things are tense in his hometown," Makke wrote in an e-mail. "He was
not able to go out to train and it has been almost a week now."
Geoffrey Rono, also a miler, said his town of Kericho is like a "war
zone," according to Makke. "Many people have been killed and
businesses have been burned to the ground," Makke reported after
speaking to Rono on the phone. "He is safe and he is able to train."
Makke
is very concerned that his athletes will not be able to get to Nairobi
to take international flights for upcoming competitions overseas.
"Several of my athletes are scheduled to travel next week to compete
in Spain and France for XC. We also have the marathons in Phoenix and
Houston and the Bermuda International Race Weekend coming up and we are
still not sure if they will be able to travel to Nairobi to take the
international flights. At the same time, we are hopeful that they will
be able to maintain their fitness."
James Templeton, whose
Kenyan athletes include Augustine Choge and David Rudisha, wrote in a
posting on the Track & Field News website that Choge was shake up
after a mob mistook his tribal identity. "He was dragged out of a
matatu (mini-bus) and accused of being a Kikuyu because his skin colour
is a little lighter than most Kalenjin. Despite speaking Nandi to the
guys who dragged him out, he was very reluctantly let go."
Templeton
also issued an ominous warning: "The next days and weeks are crucial,
if the violence is not kept under control and some peace resumed then
it will escalate as more are killed and more have revenge on their
minds. Shops are all closed and people are without food."
Another
agent, Ricky Simms, reported similar difficulties for his athletes who
are still in Kenya (several, including stars Micah Kogo and Vivian
Cheruiyot were already in Europe). "It is a crazy situation. Most
athletes are staying at their homes and afraid to go to the towns. I
think they can still train OK early in the morning in the rural areas.
The athletes are now complaining that they are running out of food at
home and cannot go to town to get shopping or even money from the bank."
Journalists
also have to be careful. "The situation is really crazy!" said Elias
Makori, the chief athletics reporter for The Daily Nation. "Right now
we are having to do our pages early and make a quick dash to our homes,
hoping for a restful night. My brother and his wife have been holed up
at a police station in Iten for the last five days and theres no sign
of a let-up in the chaos."
