Just for the love of country

Kenya, being an athletics powerhouse renown the world over, it boasts of a galaxy of athletics heroes and heroines. But amidst all the celebrated men and women who have done this country proud, Wilson Kiprugut Chumo, may not be an all too familiar a name.

   

Wilson Kiprugut is the man who won the bronze medal in 800 meters race at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo Japan in 1964 becoming the first ever Kenyan athlete to win an Olympic medal. He is however quick to point out that he would have won the race had it not been for a Jamaican who pushed him. “I was lucky to be strong and of good stamina, otherwise I would have fallen by the tracks.” He says with nostalgia that the Jamaican who pushed him hit a stone on the edge of the tracks, but he stood his ground to actually run to a podium finish. “That race was won by Peter Snell from New Zealand, a Canadian took the Silver while I came home with the Bronze medal.” Kiprugut says since that eventful day, he learnt to be a front starter always to avoid mischievous colleagues who might have wanted to lock him up behind or to trip him.

Off to National Duty: Wilson Kiprugut 
receives the National Flag from President Jomo Kenyatta ahead of an international assignment...

Kiprugut recalls that he used to make a round trip of 40km each day to school. This, he says, helped him develop ability to run and to enhance his athletics stamina. The 800 meters champion went to school at Kaptebeswet primary school in Kericho district from 1950 to 1954 and proceeded to Sitotwet intermediate school some 20km away from his home from 1955 to1957. He narrates that he owes his way to stardom to a one Captain Kiptonui from North Rift who noticed his potential as an athlete and in 1959 he recruited him into the Kings African Rifles, the now  Kenya Armed Forces. During his service in the military, Kiprugut trained and specialized in driving.

Since Kiprugut won the maiden medal, Kenya’s athletes have proudly bagged more than 85 olympic medals, the recent ones being the 11, including two gold medals at the 2012 London Olympic Games. All these medals result from brilliant performances by Kenyans in track events.  Kenya’s first participation in Olympic Games was in 1956, and she has always sent athletes to compete in every Summer Olympic Games except in 1976 and 1980.

Kiprugut also participated in the 1966 British Empire and commonwealth Games, where he won a bronze medal in the 880 yards race. He also ran alongside other big names of the time including Kimaru Songok, Peter Francis and Seraphino Antao in Kenya’s 4 X 440 yards relay team that finished fifth in the same games. Two years later in 1968, he won the Silver medal at the Summer Olympics held in Mexico City by clocking 1:44:5. However, what may arguably be the peak of his many achievements in a sterling athletics career, which he narrates with ease, came in July of 1965 when he won two Gold medals in the 400 and 800 meters at the inaugural All Africa Games held in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.

The medal haul: Wilson Kiprugut
posses for a photograph at his
Kericho home with evidence of one
of the many honours he received for
his exemplary exploits on the track.

With a wealth of experience on the track, Kiprugut says retired athletes should be brought into the fold in the running of athletics in this country. “There is no one else who knows the highs and lows of athletics than a fellow athlete. Former athletes have a big role to play in coaching and management of athletics and indeed all other sporting activities.”

He offers that Athletics management bodies in Kenya need to work in harmony for the common good of the athletes they represent and who he says do the footwork anyway.

Kiprugut lives with his wife with whom they have been blessed with 9 children and 51 years of marriage. He now enjoys his retirement in his farm in Kipchebor in Kericho County at the outskirts of Kericho Township where he keeps himself busy with fully organic farming on his five acre farm. He keeps cows and indigenous chicken which supply manure for his maize, fruits, sorghum, millet and an impressive range of vegetables-many of which are traditional. He is a tea farmer too.

It is no doubt that Wilson Kiprugut Chumo is one of the greatest athletes that Kenya has ever produced. But compared to his many achievements, this great man has received very little recognition and honour from the country he so diligently served during his time on the tracks. “When we were active athletes we were not running in expectation of anything material because all we could be given was a meager Kshs 20 pocket money and seven days off from work.” Unlike today where athletes are motivated by monetary awards, he says what gave them the drive to run was just pure love for their motherland.

Apart from Kiprugut, the South Rift has produced a good number of accomplished athletes including Mercy Cherono the 2010 World Youth Champion, World Cross Country gold medallist Emily Chebet, veteran marathoner Sammy Maritim and Olympic gold medalist Paul Kipsiele Koech. Also in the list of fame from the area is Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot the Boston marathon champion as well as Richard Matelong the Steeplechase gold medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Kass TV will every Thursday at 7:30pm be airing “Hall of Fame”, the reflective and informative stories of former athletes who did this country proud in years as far back as the 1950’s. Join Kass TV in celebrating the men and women who sacrificed for the love of country.