"It was a Tuesday and it was raining heavily. I told them to wait for me to change since I was very tired and wet. I asked them who had sent them and they said KAAA. I also asked them why they wanted to get a sample from me? they only said you will regret", says Ngugi. The next day he heard on the radio that he has been banned from running for four years.
Thus he didn't refuse the test. They didn't wait for him to change clothes.
If you read the linked article here you will see that Ngugi was taken advantage of because of his (alleged) illiteracy and general naïve behaviour. He appears to be a good man, but is currently living in dire poverty. Illiterate or not, surely he could earn a coaching job. He still has an extended family to feed.
How could an illiterate person earn a coaching job? There is so much paperwork at the college level. In fact they are more likely to hire a literate person who has no idea what running is
If you read the linked article here you will see that Ngugi was taken advantage of because of his (alleged) illiteracy and general naïve behaviour. He appears to be a good man, but is currently living in dire poverty. Illiterate or not, surely he could earn a coaching job. He still has an extended family to feed.
How could an illiterate person earn a coaching job? There is so much paperwork at the college level. In fact they are more likely to hire a literate person who has no idea what running is
How much literacy do you need to hold a stopwatch and devise training programs? Also, with regard to paperwork there is so much technology to hand now that a monkey could practically do many of the tasks we do habitually - exaggerating no doubt, but you see my point.
Ngugi is determined to get to the U.S. to coach and transmit his phenomenal knowledge.
In my mind, a human with 5 world cross country titles 86/87/88/89/92 and Olympic Games Gold, 5000 Seoul 1988, has a certain high IQ to achieve those phenomenal results. It might be a different kind of intelligence - not necessarily Mensa level - but to achieve what he has achieved - you need, I believe a high ceiling of brain power. People are confusing things.
Being functionally illiterate does not preclude a person from fulfilling job results. I'm in contact regularly with Ngugi and he responds coherently to messages within minutes. He is fine in that respect. People claiming he is "illiterate" are engaging in gross exaggeration, sorry.
Ive been a big fan of Ngugi for years, he was an incredible XC runner. A powerful runner with a long loping stride.
Having said all this Ghost1, its next to impossible for him to get a work visa to the US to coach at any level. If hes planning on spending money to try this, its better spent doing something else. Its simply not going to work out. His age and lack of credentials will work against him.
I don't know but it could be a lot easier to try places like Canada or Australia. They seem to have less stringent immigration policies for work visas.
Ive been a big fan of Ngugi for years, he was an incredible XC runner. A powerful runner with a long loping stride.
Having said all this Ghost1, its next to impossible for him to get a work visa to the US to coach at any level. If hes planning on spending money to try this, its better spent doing something else. Its simply not going to work out. His age and lack of credentials will work against him.
I don't know but it could be a lot easier to try places like Canada or Australia. They seem to have less stringent immigration policies for work visas.
Good luck to him.
Agree, I'm also a big Ngugi fan going way back and this seems like a lost cause. And it's not even really a cause because he's not exactly being persecuted or exploited. Any college head coach is going to hire a known quantity, someone she or he knows or has seen can deal with the less glamorous details of college athletics. The head coach isn't going to want to have to teach someone how to fill out and submit expense reports or deal with navigating the NCAA clearinghouse or the right way to approach admissions officers. That's what salaried assistant coaches teach volunteer or grad assistant coaches. And signing up to teach that to someone who's almost retirement age seems a thankless task. It's not like he has the "running IQ" to out-coach dozens of younger coaches already in the college system, either. Just look at Mike Smith, coaching success at that level is as much about relating to athletes as it is about writing workouts and training schedules. How is some boomer from Kenya going to relate to most if not all US recruits? That goes to the only chip Ngugi would bring to the table, he would be brought in by a program that wants to establish a Kenyan pipeline. That's what UTEP did with Ereng, except he has a college degree and had a coaching resume coming in at a far younger age. And he hasn't exactly made anyone forget about Ted Banks, he's coached a couple of middle distance champions over the course of 20 years and UTEP's xc teams have mostly been footnotes in that time. How many C-USA titles have they won under Ereng? And Ereng is a better coach than most in the NCAA, in that he was able to recruit a couple of champion runners. So maybe there's some NAIA or D2 program that wants to build itself into a Kenyan pipeline that would bring in Ngugi as a middle aged rookie coach. Or maybe there's a private high school that would consider him the right fit for their program's specific mission. It's a possibility but I think you're begging against very slim odds. I'd say he'd have much better chances as a private/club coach in Australia or Canada, even in the UK.
Ive been a big fan of Ngugi for years, he was an incredible XC runner. A powerful runner with a long loping stride.
Having said all this Ghost1, its next to impossible for him to get a work visa to the US to coach at any level. If hes planning on spending money to try this, its better spent doing something else. Its simply not going to work out. His age and lack of credentials will work against him.
I don't know but it could be a lot easier to try places like Canada or Australia. They seem to have less stringent immigration policies for work visas.
Good luck to him.
Thanks for this info.
Recently Ngugi told me that he has a camp in Nyahururu and coaches athletes in Ngong hills, near Nairobi.
Visitors to those areas may corroborate these facts. I have not been to Ngong hills but what I know from photos is that the area has fewer trees and vegetation, and is very exposed to the sun and heat compared with Iten, for example.
Successful athletes have trained there, in Ngong hills, but very few Wazungus.
Most Wazungus make a beeline for Iten, with the collateral effect of rising prices there. One camp there charges around €100 per day, all in. Too much imho, but others might consider this a cheapskate opinion.
Budgets vary.
Back in 2009 it was €30/day all included. I was in a camp with Lornah Salpeter's Israeli husband, a generous man, who left dozens of shoes for local athletes upon his departure.
Like others have said, college coaching won’t work for visa reasons. But there should be plenty of ways for Ngugi to make several thousand dollars per year off his success:
1) Online coaching. If Ngugi isn’t computer-savvy, someone (perhaps Ghost1) could take care of the admin and split the proceeds 50/50. Make a website and publicize it on here and on Instagram. $20/month for access to the training plans and a monthly half-hour chat with Ngugi. $100/month for him to coach you on a more daily/weekly basis. 50 of the former and 10 of the latter, and you’re taking in $2000/month, so Ngugi would probably net in the high three figures.
2) Autobiography. Could be partially “Ghost”-written if needed. I don’t know the economics on publishing, but the amount of money he needs to survive is so small, I can’t believe that so few people are interested in his story that he couldn’t hit that mark, particularly if the book is well-written and/or has some salacious anecdotes.
3) Instagram/Cameo/sponsorships. The guy is running royalty. There’s got to be some way to trade on his celebrity directly. Can’t some shoe company throw $500/month his way to say they’ll win you the Olympics? Or make $20 Cameo birthday videos for every aspiring jogger in the blank blank track club?
Ngugi was an exceptional runner with 5 world cross titles (86,87,88,89,92) and Olympic Games 5000 champion, in Seoul, where he opened a huge gap after 1 km and ran in splendid isolation until the end, despite attempts by Castro et.al to close the gap. That was a lesson in tactics for non speed merchant finishers to replicate, but which no one, to my knowledge, ever replicated in the following years, decades.
It boggles the mind, that this guy does not have some role in teaching youngsters or others how he reached that stratospheric level. Makes you want to cry at the apparent injustice. Let's give this icon a good break in his final work/productive years. He deserves it.
Ngugi was an exceptional runner with 5 world cross titles (86,87,88,89,92) and Olympic Games 5000 champion, in Seoul, where he opened a huge gap after 1 km and ran in splendid isolation until the end, despite attempts by Castro et.al to close the gap. That was a lesson in tactics for non speed merchant finishers to replicate, but which no one, to my knowledge, ever replicated in the following years, decades.
It boggles the mind, that this guy does not have some role in teaching youngsters or others how he reached that stratospheric level. Makes you want to cry at the apparent injustice. Let's give this icon a good break in his final work/productive years. He deserves it.
Is he coaching in Kenya? if not why not start there? If I was a washed up NASCAR car driver in America who's investment Idea's didn't work out I would not go ask Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini to higher me as a vice president... Sorta a similar thing that is happening here.
In running there is no secret sauce of training plans... There is keeping your athletes motivated and focused. It is a much different skill than running fast. Perhaps he has this talent but doesn't seem like he himself is motivated enough to do this now at home where elite athletes are far more plentiful than in the US unless there are articles showing his athletes running well etc
Ngugi was an exceptional runner with 5 world cross titles (86,87,88,89,92) and Olympic Games 5000 champion, in Seoul, where he opened a huge gap after 1 km and ran in splendid isolation until the end, despite attempts by Castro et.al to close the gap. That was a lesson in tactics for non speed merchant finishers to replicate, but which no one, to my knowledge, ever replicated in the following years, decades.
If he doesn’t have the language skills, organizational skills or motivation to navigate the his own coaching job search, or the ability to stop Ghost for making him look like a washed up charity case online, he doesn’t have the ability to coach in the US.
Ive been a big fan of Ngugi for years, he was an incredible XC runner. A powerful runner with a long loping stride.
Having said all this Ghost1, its next to impossible for him to get a work visa to the US to coach at any level. If hes planning on spending money to try this, its better spent doing something else. Its simply not going to work out. His age and lack of credentials will work against him.
I don't know but it could be a lot easier to try places like Canada or Australia. They seem to have less stringent immigration policies for work visas.
Good luck to him.
Thanks for this info.
Recently Ngugi told me that he has a camp in Nyahururu and coaches athletes in Ngong hills, near Nairobi.
Visitors to those areas may corroborate these facts. I have not been to Ngong hills but what I know from photos is that the area has fewer trees and vegetation, and is very exposed to the sun and heat compared with Iten, for example.
Successful athletes have trained there, in Ngong hills, but very few Wazungus.
Most Wazungus make a beeline for Iten, with the collateral effect of rising prices there. One camp there charges around €100 per day, all in. Too much imho, but others might consider this a cheapskate opinion.
Budgets vary.
Back in 2009 it was €30/day all included. I was in a camp with Lornah Salpeter's Israeli husband, a generous man, who left dozens of shoes for local athletes upon his departure.
I believe the cheruiyot/manangoi group trains in the ngong hills outside of Nairobi; but I could be wrong.
Like others have said, college coaching won’t work for visa reasons. But there should be plenty of ways for Ngugi to make several thousand dollars per year off his success:
1) Online coaching. If Ngugi isn’t computer-savvy, someone (perhaps Ghost1) could take care of the admin and split the proceeds 50/50. Make a website and publicize it on here and on Instagram. $20/month for access to the training plans and a monthly half-hour chat with Ngugi. $100/month for him to coach you on a more daily/weekly basis. 50 of the former and 10 of the latter, and you’re taking in $2000/month, so Ngugi would probably net in the high three figures.
2) Autobiography. Could be partially “Ghost”-written if needed. I don’t know the economics on publishing, but the amount of money he needs to survive is so small, I can’t believe that so few people are interested in his story that he couldn’t hit that mark, particularly if the book is well-written and/or has some salacious anecdotes.
3) Instagram/Cameo/sponsorships. The guy is running royalty. There’s got to be some way to trade on his celebrity directly. Can’t some shoe company throw $500/month his way to say they’ll win you the Olympics? Or make $20 Cameo birthday videos for every aspiring jogger in the blank blank track club?
You should start believing that few people care about a distance runner from 30 years ago. Autobiographies rarely sell well. Nobody is going to get a Cameo. And he isn't moving any shoes... And I would have serious doubts about his ability to coach some age grouper. The dude was a legend as an athlete but is there any evidence he knows how to help nonElites? If he can't get a training group in Kenya to pay him a few thousand, it is going to be tricky to get some people in the US to pay? Maybe you get lucky and find a dozen guys willing to pay but I think it will take a lot of effort to get there.
Just makes you want to send a thank you to everyone who coaches. Low pay, terrible hours, endless responsibilities, and questionable job security. You really have to love the sport to dedicate yourself to it like this.
How could an illiterate person earn a coaching job? There is so much paperwork at the college level. In fact they are more likely to hire a literate person who has no idea what running is
How much literacy do you need to hold a stopwatch and devise training programs? Also, with regard to paperwork there is so much technology to hand now that a monkey could practically do many of the tasks we do habitually - exaggerating no doubt, but you see my point.
Ngugi is determined to get to the U.S. to coach and transmit his phenomenal knowledge.
In my mind, a human with 5 world cross country titles 86/87/88/89/92 and Olympic Games Gold, 5000 Seoul 1988, has a certain high IQ to achieve those phenomenal results. It might be a different kind of intelligence - not necessarily Mensa level - but to achieve what he has achieved - you need, I believe a high ceiling of brain power. People are confusing things.
Being functionally illiterate does not preclude a person from fulfilling job results. I'm in contact regularly with Ngugi and he responds coherently to messages within minutes. He is fine in that respect. People claiming he is "illiterate" are engaging in gross exaggeration, sorry.
Unfortunately, that is not the way of the world nowadays and you need to be able to read to use a computer anyway.
I do agree that he would have a lot to offer as a coach but he should have been coaching in Kenya if he wanted to do it in the USA.
He is the one athlete who I thought was unlucky with the testers as it was very early days for out of competition tests and he won world titles at global level before EPO was around.
Ngugi's coaching pedigree is a mystery because he doesn't like to answer specific questions about who he coaches and their results. He only revealed that the late Sammy Wanjiru trained in Nyahururu when he (Ngugi) was also there. He also inferred that Wazungus (us whities) "ask too many questions" - I have no option but to respect Ngugi's wish for discretion. He has always had a reputation for being somewhat secretive, introverted and a loaner. The mystery continues. I tried to explain that more info was needed about his coaching record and stats of his runners, but he (Ngugi) is non responsive in that regard.
Watching W.C. Brazil v Serbia now. Fascinating games, up till now with major surprises incl Saudi beating Argentina and Japan beating Germany. Group stages.
