Kiprop bedridden at Mulago

KAMPALA- Many people do not know him at first mention, but when you say he is the man who helped Stephen Kiprotich clinch last year’s World Championships marathon gold in Moscow, people quickly nod in the affirmative.

But the news is sad. Jackson Kiprop is lying unconscious, battling for his life at Mulago National Referral Hospital. He can neither talk nor respond to any sign language.

According to Kiprotich, who has been training with him in Eldoret, Kiprop’s ‘strange’ sickness started last week. “It was last week on Tuesday when he started complaining of stomachache. We then took him to Eldoret where he was treated but the condition worsened and we were referred to Nairobi Hospital,” Kiprotich, who was travelling back to the training camp after driving his colleague to Mulago, told the Daily Monitor yesterday.

Kiprop’s long-time doctor, Henry Nambafu, said he was called to Eldoret when the sickness started and that Jakait C.S, the medical director of Cedar Clinical Association that treats the athletes at the training camp, said they had first suspected Kiprop to be suffering from meningitis whereas not.

So they treated him as a malaria case. “When I was contacted about Kiprop’s health, we went to Eldoret with his wife Irene Kiprop and brother Michael Kusuro. We reached there last week and his condition was worsening. Kiprop got convulsions and it is then that I consulted a physician from Mulago and he advised me to bring him to Kampala,” Nambafu said yesterday.

Both the consultant-physician and the public relations officer at Mulago, Fred Nakwagala and Enock Kusasira respectively, said they could not divulge information about a patient’s sickness to the public without his consent. They, however, said the hospital was taking good care of the athlete.

But the sickness is a blow to Ms Kiprop, who amid tears, said her husband had never suffered such a sickness. The couple have three children- two boys and a daughter; the eldest being six years old.

Kiprop’s Prisons coach Francis Demanyi, who was also at Mulago, said for more than seven years that he has been with the athlete; he had never suffered any sickness.

“I was shocked when I was told Kiprop was sick. We hope he recovers because he is our next marathon hope,” Demayi said.

Kiprop, who endured a frustrating career as a track runner, is currently Uganda’s second best marathoner after Kiprotich.

ABOUT KIPROP

The 27-year old Uganda Prisons runner had a frustrating start to his career but made a breakthrough last year. He started the 2013 season in emphatic style, winning the Mumbai Standard Chartered Marathon after entering as a pacesetter.
He set a course record of 2:09:32, a personal best to claim the $50,000 winner’s prize.

At the World Championships (August 2013), Kiprop broke the opposition down by pacing through mid-race, clearing the way for teammate Kiprotich to win with ease.

A spent Kiprop held on to finish an impressive 10th in Moscow and was praised by Kiprotich for the good team work. Kiprop showed he can even get better after he finished seventh in the New York Marathon (November) with Kiprotich coming 12th.

With Kiprotich ruling himself out of the Commonwealth Games due later this year, Kiprop was being looked at as the best prospect for a Ugandan medal. The sickness could have dashed those hopes.

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