Elgon Cup, London Marathon, El Classico - Busy Sporting Weekend

The second last weekend of April represents a nice offering for Kenyan sporting fans. What with all the rains pounding much of the country, it's a mostly indoors affair for Kenyan (save for the fact that @KenyaPower may have other ideas depending on your side of the hood...)
This one has quite a flurry of activity and sporting events to look out for;



Rugby

Elgon Cup poster

Kenya's rivalry with Uganda for the 2012 Elgon Cup is renewed tomorrow at the famous Kyadondo Grounds in Kampala. The last few haunts to that ground have not been very successful for Kenyans. The coach Mike 'Tank' Otieno has introduced quite a number of fresh players hoping to expose these to the tougher and longer version of the game ( 15-a-side). We pray for a Kenya win and wish the best in their Kyadondo outing.The game will be screened live on SuperSport.


Football
The local league continues with some interesting fixtures such as the AFC Leopards v/s Tusker in Mombasa, Gor Mahia v/s Ulinzi Stars in Nakuru, among others. Leopards is slowly building a gap at the top, but these are early stages and 2-3 games can quickly change what may have seemed like a sterling season. Gor Mahia will be playing their first game after the decision to discipline their fans for the fracas during the AFC v/s Gor Mahia game. There is also the #BongaBoli  follow on Twitter @BongaBoli promo seeking a Kiswahili football-caster for SuperSport as they develop content for their East African channel 9. This weekend they visit the lakeside town of Kisumu.
Internationally there is the EPL big one Arsenal ( which enjoys quite a following around this part of the world) and Chelsea. It's the feature game on Saturday starting at 1445hours. Later in the evening is the biggest derby in club football in Spain where Barcelona faces up Real Madrid for the title race. Each of these sides came out of UEFA Champions League licking their wounds. It ought to be a cracker as Lionel Messi tries to outscore Cristiano Ronaldo - for the Pichichi Award.

Athletics
After a fairly successful outing of Kenyan marathoners last weekend in Boston, Sunday, the London marathon is back! After taking both the men's and women's title, this will be no walk in the park as the Ethiopians and also some Chinese will hoping to make the podium.
This race will help (or further complicate...) the selection process for the Kenyan team for the Olympic Games which come back to this city in July-August later this year.
Emmanuel Mutai will be hoping to defend his win last year but will have to give chase to 3-time winner Martin Lel, world record holder Patrick Makau and world champion Abel Kirui. A tough call to pick the winner right there!
Mary Keitany leads the women's charge and will be given a run by one of the Dibaba sisters Ejegayehu Dibaba.

Formula One

Bahrain GP

Yes this sport has developed quite a following in the country even when some of the races are in some ungodly hours of Sunday morning or evening. This weekend sees GP teams visiting the Arab state of Bahrain. The first practice session today saw Lewis Hamilton emerge tops amidst controversies and tomorrow the cars and drivers take back to the track to see who attains pole position in the starting grid.
 
All the above action is available on the SuperSport channels for those who feel like staying indoors. If you can afford to hang out at a pal's or your local hang-out, then these too can provide you with some nice weekend action!

RIP Samuel Wanjiru, True Kenyan Hero

Waking to morning news, the media outlets bombarded us with the sad bit of Samuel Wanjiru's passing early this morning. We shall not belabour the circumstances surrounding his death. Having been in difficult circumstances starting this year, he was in the middle of some personal crisis which seems to have ended in this tragic way.

A brief window into his life show that he had become one of Kenyan's leading marathoners having secured the 2005 Most Promising Sportsman of the Year Award, having won and broken the world half-marathon record in Rotterdam. He went on to become the first Kenyan ever to win a marathon in Beijing Olympics and in the same year came 2nd in the London Marathon sending warning signals to his rivals.
His last major exploit though was the Chicago Marathon which he won in style having run neck to neck in the last few miles with Ethiopia's Tsegaye Kedebe. Other major awards included;
2008 Sportsman of the Year Award - Kenya
2008 AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year Award (sponsored by Asic)
2009 London & Chicago Marathon winner
2010 Chicago Marathon winner
His exploits had seen him secure major sponsorship from Japan and also enjoying attendance fees of upwards of US$ 50,000- 100,000 per race. SportsKenya had ranked him as one of the top earners in sports in the year 2010 in an earlier post. Little did we know this would be our last one of him being alive.

Concerns will be raised about the people surrounding him before his death and his continued
indulgences in life's pleasures. While many a sportsman usually have problems later on in their careers, his had started pressing too soon. It should be of note to future and aspiring sports personalities that while the world loves your exploits, find it deep within you to stay grounded lest the attention and allure of the earnings, lifestyle and all that comes with it start eating up your very essence of life.

Kenya has lost a young sportsman full of potential and we at SK send our sympathies to one and all. When the history books are done, it shall be noted that this young man left in the early stages of what had promised to be a talented marathoner of global status.

26th Nov 1986 - 16th May 2011 RIP Samuel Kamau Wanjiru

Kenyan Marathoners to Retrace their steps ???

The last week saw the Kenyan and indeed the athletics world treated to some shocking news. The organisers of the Utrecht Marathon have decided to discourage Kenyan marathoners from participating by granting prize money of a measly € 100 (approx. $144). Compare this with the prize money of € 100,000 promised to the local Dutch runners winning the race.

Illustration courtesy of Jason Atwood

If there has ever been discrimination of any kind , this is an example right there! It should be condemned from the highest of places and wonder what the IAAF and Athletics Kenya have to say about this.
Given the domination of Kenyan athletes in major marathons across Europe with the country contributing at least 85-90% wins over any given year, this is a real disgrace to the very essence of a sport. If you cannot make a sport competitive by getting the athletes or participants to train harder, seek smarter ways to victory or even 'import talent', live with the fact that there will always be a winner who might not always tickle your fancy.
As for Kenyan marathoners and the athletics fraternity in Kenya, it seems your success has not always left the best of impressions in most race organisers in Europe and other parts of the world. The World Marathon Majors series starts this weekend with the first marathon on card being the London Marathon  on 17th April followed by Boston Marathon the 18th April before taking a break and continuing in September at the Berlin Marathon.
Let this announcement serve as ample motivation to win and win comprehensively for any Kenyan participant. We shall be proudly singing with you the victory song and enjoy playing that our national anthem once again!


NOTE:
Brand Kenya had made one of its major country branding strategies to focus on marketing the country through the major marathons across the world. They are currently setting up shop at Boston along RunWithKenyans which is seeking to partner along the same lines and create linkages between US marathoners and the Kenyan market.
Their work is now really cut out with such careless pronouncements from our European brothers.

Run with Kenyans

Friday found one of our contributors dutifully make it for a breakfast briefing by Brand Kenya. The morning's call was to launch activities geared towards marking the country's 50th (golden) anniversary ( yup Kenya's 50 on 2013!).

As has lately been realised by Government operatives and bodies tasked with promoting Kenya as nation brand, the use of sports is gaining credence and a focal point. As the Brand Kenya officials noted, it is important to leverage the country especially as it looks to mark some important milestones with an election next year as it moves to the next 50 years.

Sport has been known to unify the most warring of states and Kenya is no exception. As such some Kenyan entrepreneur who works in the US, one Wilson Kiriungi ,Marco Peterson(former IT entrepreneur) and Benjamin Rapoport (a medical practitioner) have come up with a organisation, Run With Kenyans. The motivation behind this organisation is to ride on the wave of Kenyan marathoners/athletes who have been winners of various top marathons across the world.

Using the goodwill built by the athletes, the organisation will target US recreational marathoners (the US has approximately 48 million of these, 15 million who run at least 10 times annually in the half & full marathons across the States). These runners are from the upper middle class to the affluent thus making good targets fpr sports tourism. 

Starting with the Boston Marathon, reputedly the oldest marathon in the world and which coincidentally has been won by Kenyans since 1991 (including a current sitting MP for Emgwen - Elijah Langat in 2000) ; the plans are to have a Kenyan House stand at the preceding Expo of the Marathon. This expo usually has an average attendance of 80,000. Replicating this across major marathons including the Chicago, New York, London among others. 

The other benefit is to pitch to the Kenyans living in the diaspora to cheer on their compatriots and also participate in the marathon(s). 

Robert 'Mwafrika' Cheruiyot - one of the past winners - Boston Marathon

We do wish them well in their endeavours and kudos to Brand Kenya for taking this initiative. This should not be the last of such ideas and the potent of sport is huge. If they can keep luring Government operatives away from the politics to focus more on such developments, the country will be all the better for this.

Kenyan "Superstars" at the London Marathon

Thanks to the volcanic ash from the Icelandic islands, our Kenyan athletes have attracted added interest and given the London Marathon the intended PR they invested in. Yes they put their money where their mouths are, paying $230,000 to get the elite runners from Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

This year's title sponsors are Virgin Group of Companies through its Virgin Money brand. They even have a branded website for the London Marathon. The company's known for not shuddering among sports disciplines and is always on the look-out for major sports sponsorship opportunities. They will hold title naming rights till 2014.
Kenya holds a special place in this marathon dating back to the 1989 victory of the first Kenyan to win a World Athletics Champions gold medal in the marathon, Douglas Wakiihuri - remembered best for his white gloves thanks to the dreary weather conditions in the city. Kenya has also been winning the men's race since 2004 when Evans Rutto set the pace and opened doors for 3-time winner Martin Lel, 2006 winner Felix Limo and reigning champ Samuel Wanjiru, who remains the man to beat as reported on UniversalSport.com - find list of previous winners here.
The marathon is part of the World Marathon Majors which features; Boston,London,Berlin, Chicago & New York marathons. Come watch our Kenyan contingent in the race pitted to raise the temperatures around breezy London.Catch the marathon live on SuperSport 1 on Sunday between 0945-1400, Central African Time.