Legend Kiprotich takes athlete of the year gong

It would have raised eye brows and unanswerable questions if Stephen Kiprotich had not won the Athlete of the Year award.

But all remained like predicted and the 2012 London Olympics marathon champion took the top prize at the Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF)Annual Awards Gala at Serena Hotel on Friday.

“I am grateful to God and I hope he favours me this year,” said Kiprotich after being crowned top athlete by the State Minister for Sports Charles Bakkabulindi, who was the chief guest. The 23-year-old runner came as first choice on the four-man shortlist ahead of triple jumper Sarah Nambawa, 3,000m steeplechaser Benjamin Kiplagat and road runner Jackson Kiprop.

In a year that Uganda celebrated its 50th Independence Anniversary, Nambawa and Kiplagat tried to restore the country’s pride at the Africa Senior Championships in Porto Novo, Benin which was just almost a month prior to Kiprotich’s historic moment.

“He deserves it,” US-based Nambawa said. She settled for second while Kiplagat came third. Kiplagat won bronze, his first senior medal since the 2008 World Junior Championships while Nambawa took a leap of 13.90m to retain her African title.

Kiprop clocked 1:02:05 hours to finish seventh which spurred Uganda to settle for fifth at the 21km World Half Marathon Championships held in Bulgaria. Despite their feats, Kiprotich’s still weighed a lot more and UAF left justice prevailing by crowning the legend as the athletics king.
The Kapchorwa-based long distance star clocked a time of 2:8:01 to win the 42km event on the last day of the 30th Olympiad.

Kiprotich’s triumph made certain of not only Uganda’s first Olympic medal since sprinter Davis Kamoga’s bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games but also Uganda’s seventh medal in the history of the quadrennial meet.

The victory propelled President Yoweri Museveni to promise a stadium in Kiprotich’s village.
“To our minister (Bakkabulindi), everyone in the village want to know when the stadium starts operating. They (Kapchorwa people) want to see it before they die.”
Kiprotich was flanked by his coach Richard Meto, who was taking him through drills in Eldoret.