• Established in 2015, the camp has been home to talented athletes from the larger West Pokot County and moreso for kids from the notorious cattle-rustling areas of Lelan and Lalei.
•Currently, Chewoyet in home to 10 athletes from these areas including Africa under 18 5,000m silver medalist Jacob Krop.
After missing an opportunity to make it big in athletics during his formative years, Edward Moti establishing a training camp that would ensure not any more talented youngster from his community would follow his path.
Moti says he had interest in running back in the days but never had the opportunity since his parents were strict that he must concentrate on his studies.
Moti, the physics and mathematics teacher at Chewoyet National School, has a training camp at the school, one of the 20 sanctioned by Athletics Kenya to train probables for next year's World Under 20 Championships.
Established in 2015, the camp has been home to talented athletes from the larger West Pokot County and moreso for kids from the notorious cattle-rustling areas of Lelan and Lalei.
“I couldn't run while at Kapkawa Primary and Surewa Secondary schools and when I did, I was not so much into it since our parents were strict that we must work hard in academics. However, I did relatively well in university (Chepkoilel University now The University of Eldoret) but not to the top of the game and I vowed that I must do something to ensure kids my type get an opportunity to nurture their talents," says Moti, who competed in 800m.
Moti says his main aim is to provide guidance and direction to the upcoming runners thus ensuring that they enjoy the fruits of their talents later in life.
“I started this junior athletics training camp in Chewoyet School with an aim of rescuing talented athletes from marginalised communities in the interior of West Pokot County, including areas of Lelan and Lalei, where they are exposed to the long-standing cattle-rustling culture,” says Moti.
Currently, Chewoyet is home to 10 athletes from these areas including Africa under 18 5,000m silver medalist Jacob Krop.
The camp prides itself with the the identification and nurturing of numerous runners who have gone on to get scholarships in various institutions of higher runner including United States of America's Alabama University and Mexico University.
Among the students are Noel Rotich, a 3,000m steeplechase junior runner and Michael Rotich, who is in New Mexico.
“Right now we have Krop, whom we rescued from cattle-rustlers militia and he went ahead to win silver at Africa junior championships. He also represented the country at the 2019 World Athletics championships in Doha, Qatar. He is among the top athletes in the camp alongside Felix Korir,” says Moti.
Krop was part of the Team Kenya to the Africa Cross Country Championships which were to be held in Lome, Togo but the event was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Moti says they have now shifted gear and have drafted a programme for the youngster to prepare Krop, Korir, Simon Kipkosgei and the other probables for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics set for next year in Tokyo, Japan.
Moti says he fell in love with junior runners since they are easy to groom and are also part of his daily undertakings as a career teacher and thus can understand their strengths, weakness and challenges.
Chewoyet is mainly a boys' camp but Moti reveals that they are in the process of opening a similar training base at Tartar Girls where talented girls will be sent.
“I normally travel around during primary school sports events. I identify the runners and then establish where they come from and their parents and if we manage to work things out, we bring them to our camp," adds Moti.
However, it is not all rosy since most of the runners come from poor families, who cannot raise the finances to not only keep them in school but also in camp.
"It is usually tough for us to raise the finances and resources needed to carry out our training and academics," says Moti. "During school holidays, the athletes remain in school to train and this means extra costs.”
He reveals that the school meets about 70 per cent of the expenses and he is sometimes forced to use his earnings to supplement. He bemoans that this lack of adequate resources denies the athletes the kind of diet needed for their training.
In June, however, the runners received support from Athletics Kenya under the Youth Development Committee programme which benefitted athletes identified as probables for the U20 Championships in Nairobi.
“This year, Athletics Kenya came to our aid by selecting our camp among the 20 across the country where runners identified as probables for the postponed World Under 20 Championships are being trained," adds Moti.
Being a junior camp, Moti says he expects good results at the age-group competitions which will ensure a stable foundation fo0r the athletes in the future, either by becoming top runners or securing scholarships to institutions of higher learning across the world where they can chase their academic dreams.
“We want a good generation of runners and our aim is to guide them into the right channels to identify their career and know what they want in their future,” he adds.
However, just like many other parts of the country where training facilities is a major challenge, Chewoyet has not been left behind.
The runners train on public roads and footpaths and the stadium at the school does not have a running track.
"We do not have a running, tartan or murram like in nairobi and other places. We mostly train on grass. We hope that one day we will get a proper facility which will help us train better," he hopes.
Moti is also a worried man. Many junior runners are taking to marathons and road running which most often than not sees them fail to realise their potential due to burn-outs.
“You realise some athletes are going into road running when they are still young and within a short period, they are no more. My aim is to bring them back on the right track, ensure they go through the track and cross country for a while before they can venture into road running,” he says.
“As a country, our prowess in track running is fading out fast because we have failed in guiding our young runners. They are rushing to marathons and road races very early and if we are not careful, we might struggle in the future. They need to progress step by step.”
"However, I don't blame them. Road running is lucrative and spread across the year, unlike track which is not as rich and also seasonal,” he says.