Retired athletics champion Michael Cherono, 65, is tired of boredom and poverty.
He flexes his muscles, ready to resume active sporting in competitions for older men. He is a retired teacher now stays at home.
Cherono from Kaptere in Baringo North subcounty said he is optimistic he can still win gold and save his family and community from abject poverty.
“What is wrong with my age, yet it is just but a number? Practice is all I need. I practice every morning and evening and I feel more fit than ever,” Cherono told the Star in Kabarnet town on Friday.
The veteran athlete said in 1975, while in secondary school, he won the East African 1,500m championship in Iringa-Tanzania. He scooped the second position in the 3000m steeplechase in Kisumu in 1974.
“This is just a brief but as you can see here I have got a whole bag full of certificates,” he said. He has certificates carefully kept in an ancient black briefcase.
Before retiring from sports in 1980, he says he won his last best award in the 800m race in the US. He clocked 1:47. “I was chosen to represent Kenya in the Olympics in Mosco but then, African countries boycotted the event due to apartheid in South Africa,” Cherono said.
He won a scholarship to further his studies at an American University before returning to teach at a secondary school until he retired in 2004.
Cherono said during his heyday in sporting, champions were not treated the same way they are today. He said they were not special and didn’t earn millions of shillings after winning, as they do today.
“However much one ran, he or she could only get a worthless trophy, a paper certificate and a token of appreciation,” he said.
Cherono is ready to go back to the track if given the chance and hopefully win money.
“I’m tired of boredom and poverty. I want to go out and meet my mates in the world to compete with them. I know I will win to bring home many medals.”
However, he was turned away on Monday when he presented a proposal saying a group of elderly team were willing to resume athletics.
County Sports executive Thomas Ole Nongonop said no. “It is an ambush and we don’t have a budget for them,” Nongonop told the Star on Thursday. He said, however, the county is committed to promotingsports.
Cherono is among the nine-member team from Baringo set to register with Athletics Kenya Masters (AKM) for the elderly at Eldoret this Saturday.
Others are former retired athletics icons Mathew Birir, Rael Mitich, Mary Chepkoiyo, Charles Cheruiyot, Jonah Birir, Rodah Chebon, Caroline Bowen, Sammy Cheruiyot and Elijah Chelagat.
AKM president Rose Muiya said the team is fit to resume active sports and represent Kenya in African and the upcoming world competitions.
She urged the counties to register older persons to participate in sports. Muiya said it will save them from boredom, which may result in alcoholism and immorality.
Among successful young local athletes Cherono coached are Peris Cheptoo, Titus Munchi, William Chebon, Christine Chepkong’a, Eric Kiptoon, Richard Kimatoi, Victor Kigen, Yusuf Songoka, Kimwetich Kangogo, Joel Kulei, Benjamin Bartonjo and Beatrice Cherono.