By Robert Rutto
In the winter of 2011, a shooting star launched in the beautiful city of
Punta Umbria, Spain. The star was a starry-eyed girl barely 17 years of age.
On her maiden flight, she had travelled thousands of miles from Kenya.
Her mind was all made up: To win gold for her country, her family and her school back in rural Keringet.
She had left nothing to chance.
She had even had her hair touched into a beautiful palm.
Nothing or no-one was to stand in her way to gold.
Not even the sparkling new pair of running shoes gifted to her on the eve of race day.
She did not need this either.
She chose her own pair of tried, tested and trusted pair of “shoes.” That is her own pair of feet.
She had faith both in her name and in her own pair of feet.
That is all she needed.
On race day, she looked unrattled and undistracted by the dazzling white sea of spectators marooning the course.
At the start line of the junior race at the World Cross Country Championships, she appeared unfazed by the competition drawn from around the globe.
And undaunted by the responsibility suddenly thrust upon her by the masses of Kenyans anxiously waiting back home.
On her tender shoulders, she carried the crushing weight of an entire nation.
She entered the homestretch with a posse of Ethiopians waiting to pounce on her.
But alas!, the young tigress pounced. To paraphrase the great thinker, essayist and playwright Wole Soyinka: “A tigress does not proclaim her tigritude. She pounces.”
And pounced she did.
Her small, bare feet furiously digging into and out of the now soggy ground as she put daylight between her and her pursuers.
And so it was that Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon won both the title and the hearts of millions of people watching the event around the world.
The shooting star had just begun her journey across the universe.
The rest of the beautiful story of Faith is in the annals of history…
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Pura Vida Sports Africa, in partnership with Safaricom, will be on the ground in Paris, through our Managing Editor Elias Makori, to bring you up to speed with daily accounts on the build-up to Faith Kipyegon’s “Breaking-4” Challenge. Keep it locked at puravidasports.africa
This update is generally attributed to Pura Vida’s Content team. Feel free to shared any feedback or or relevant info incase of inaccuracies.
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