Commonwealth Games: Changing trend as athletes transfer sports success to class

John Kelai Ekiru when he won marathon gold at the 2011 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India.

The Commonwealth Games, which unites the 71 English-speaking nations here, has seen Kenya present some highly educated athletes.

The 195-member squad, which will be flying the national flag, is cut from a different material altogether.

There are varied professional graduates from Kenyan and overseas universities, which is a departure from the naive and laid-back perception people have of athletes.

Rugby Sevens, famed as the game played by gentlemen but watched by hooligans, has always been the home academia.

Almost the entire squad is made up of university graduates, courtesy of rugby talent development programmes in universities.

Track and field, a discipline that predominantly had little focus on formal education, is steadily climbing the academic ladder.

Stephen Chemlany, who teams up with defending champion John Kelai Ekiru and Eric Ndiema in today’s marathon, is simply Kenya’s brightest athlete here. He holds a master’s degree from the Iona College in New Rochelle, New York.

“I tried to make the national team several times without success. I have prepared well for the big battle,” he told FeverPitch at the Athletes Village.

The alumnus of Kakamega High School, who basks in a personal best record of 2:07:55 in Berlin Marathon, said “there is no better way to walk smart than to have sufficient education.

“When I was a boy, I admired athletics but wanted to be a journalist. I used to imagine how good I would look if I were eloquent infront of the camera.”

Another Kenyan graduate in the track and field is US-based hammer participant Linda Oseso.

University students in Team Kenya include Florence Wasike in 400m (Mt Kenya University), Jecinta Shikanda (Egerton University) and Collins Omae (Kenya Methodist University).

Omae is a member of Speedstars Athletics and was the university champion in 2012 and 2013 in both 200m and 400m.