by Ben Ayuko
contact info: benayuko@gmail.com
{image by NOC-K}
Samuel Gathimba was our Kenyan representative, out of 50 competitors, in the 20 Kilometer Race-Walk event at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
He was coming up against a tough field, including defending Olympic and World Champion, the Italian, Massimo Stano.
It was a tough race with different competitors employing different strategies. Some were opting to shoot off immediately from the onset and build up a gap between themselves and everybody else, while others were conserving their energy early on, hoping to deploy it deeper into the race.
The eventual winner of the race, Ecuadorian Brian Daniel Pintado, opted for the latter strategy. He was running in as low a position as 37th place during the early stages of the race.
Gathimba opted for the secret option number three strategy: maintaining a steady pace for the whole race, which could have worked had he got a better in a higher position.
He was steadily climbing up the field and found himself in 10th position with 5km to go. He could have found himself fighting for one of the medal positions considering he was, at this point, ahead of the Brazilian, Caio Bonfim, who eventually finished the race in 2nd place. However, this is when his energy reserves started to betray him. Try as he might, he just couldn’t keep up with the race and slowly started fading away.
Alas, despite clocking his fastest time of the season– 1hr 21min 26sec – and finishing in the top half of the field, he could only muster a 22nd place finished.
“Kulikuwa na mabingwa wengi wenye walikuwa wameshinda 2023, 2022…na hata ukifuatilia, utapata hata hawakumake bracket,” Gathimba said. “Let me say, Expectations zangu hazikuenda vile nilikuwa nataka. So, im going to run more and more...”
Translation: “There were previous winners from past years who didn’t even make the cut,” Gathimba said. “My expectations didn’t pan out to my liking. But I’ll keep running…”
A valiant effort from the 2-time Africa Games Champion as he can live with his head held high knowing he gave his best effort in the competition, which is really all anyone could have asked of him.