Race walking to athletics glory

In the realm of local race walking, Samuel Gathimba needs no introduction. The Kenya Prisons officer boasts of two Africa Championship titles, an All Africa Games gold, and silver medals in both competitions. He also won bronze during the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.

On March 4 this year, he wrote history by finishing third at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships held in Muscat, Oman. It was Kenya’s first ever podium finish in the competition’s 61-year history.

Born in October 1987, Samuel initially tried his hand in middle distance running and race walking while at Mumwe Primary School in Othaya, Nyeri County. He found that he performed better in race walking.

“I decided to concentrate on what I was good at,” says the Gakuyu Secondary School alumnus who believes it is easier for a runner to switch to race walking than a walker to take up running.

“After high school, I wanted to continue with race walking but there was a challenge. I didn’t have a mentor or any external support. I ended up dropping the sport due to lack of motivation,” he says.

Between 2009 and 2013, Samuel busied himself with picking tea in farms in Othaya, looking after people’s cattle, cutting Napier grass and trimming hedges to earn money.

“I am also a talented dancer and I was part of a group that entertained crowds during harambees and weddings,” he notes.

For five years, Samuel didn’t engage in any race walking activities. But one day, while in his room, he gazed at the medal he had won while at Gakuyu Secondary School and reflected on how his life would have turned out had he continued with the sport.

“I started thinking, will I do these menial jobs until I grow old? I didn’t like my life, and I wasn’t interested in furthering my studies at that point. I started wondering how I would put food on my table. Memories of my high school days as an athlete flooded my mind. I wondered where my fellow race walkers were, and realised that most of them had abandoned their passion. I decided not to do the same.

That day, Samuel vowed to return to race walking.

“I held the medal in my hands and asked God to help me succeed and earn good money from my talent,” he says.

From his meagre savings, he bought a track suit, running shoes and a pair of shorts. There were no race walkers in his village, so when he started training, his neighbours used to laugh at him.

“They thought I was going mad. They even asked my parents whether I was OK and tried using my mother to derail my plans. They asked her to keep me busy with tea picking, but I told my mum I would assist her at the farms after my practice sessions. She agreed, although she kept asking me whether I would ever succeed as an athlete.

“I told her not to mind what other people say. They used to say very hurtful things. That I won’t go far, that runners start at primary school and head to camps, not train on their own in the village. Even my dad was incited by his friends to discourage me from race walking.

He would come home drunk, knock on my door and tell me that I was wasting my time. I would escape through the window on those days,” he remembers.

“Now, everybody who used to laugh at me is singing my praises, saying that they had me in their prayers. I have become a darling of my village. Everybody wants a shirt from me,” he says.

Samuel has built a good house in Othaya, and is married.

“I used to earn between Sh100 and Sh500 a day from doing menial jobs around my village but after winning my first medal in Marrakech in 2014, I got Sh200,000 at once. It was a lot of money for me and I decided to stick with race walking,” says Samuel.

He has travelled the world and competed in various competitions in his specialty – 20 kilometre walk.

Gathimba qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil, but he registered a DNF (Did Not Finish).

“I was misled and went off course in the final kilometre, only to be told at the end of the race that I had not completed it. How can I walk 19.5 kilometres and fail to finish the last 500 metres? It really surprised me,” he says.

His worst performance yet came in 2019 at his second World Championship in Doha, Qatar.

“It was really hot in Doha. I finished 33rd. I learnt from the experience that it is important to know the weather of the country you are going to compete in and adjust your training accordingly,” says Samuel.

In 2021, Samuel made the cut for the Tokyo Olympic Games, but was dropped due to technicalities. But, he did not lose hope. His coach, George Kariuki, told him there were plans to enter Kenya at the 2022 World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Muscat, Oman.

“I worked hard in training and came home with a medal. Many thought I would only make top 30 in Muscat but I had prepared well,” says Gathimba who has big hopes of winning a medal at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA slated for July 15-24.

“This is just the beginning. I still have six to 10 years of race walking. Hili ni shamba tosha la kukulia (race walking is enough land for me to make a living from),” he observes.

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