in Tokyo

It was a tale of Sunday morning brotherly love as Geoffrey Kiplangat Rotich guided his sister Nancy Chelangat Koech to the final of the 1,500 metres in the T11 category at the National Stadium here.

Kenya’s second entry, Wary Waithera Njoroge (with Bernard Korir as guide runner), failed to make it to the final of the race for visually impaired athletes after finishing third (four minutes, 52.54 seconds) in the day’s opening heat at Tokyo’s National Stadium.

Chelangat and Kiplangat finished fourth in the second heat but their time of 4:51.68 seconds - along with third-placed Pole Joanna Mazur (guided by Michal Stawicski), who clocked 4:51.67 - saw them through to Monday morning’s final to be run at 9.38am local time (3.38am Kenyan time) as the two fastest runners outside the top two.

“Nancy was born blind. When she was in school, there was another visually impaired runner called Eric Sang who was from our village and who was also competing in para sports and who I was training,” Kiplangat narrated to Nation Sport.

“It was then that I also started slowly coaching Nancy until she got her groove. I decided to assist her because she is my sister.”

Like most of the runner guides, Kiplangat was a good athlete in his own right, but one who decided to sacrifice his own pro running career to guide his sister and other para athletes.

“In secondary school, I used to compete up to the provincial level but then I
decided to assist my sister.”

Growing up in Londiani, Kericho County, Chelangat loved sport, especially running, but could never have dreamt she would be competing at the highest level in the world, at the elite Paralympic Games.

She’s already been there, done that, having attempted a rare 200m/1,500m double at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games where she won silver in the 1,500m in 4:42.14, finishing 16th overall in the 200m.

At the 2019 World Championships in Dubai, she won a bronze in the 1,500m
(4:56.28).

“When I was young, I was bitten by the running bug, and even at school, I started
off running 100 metres,” Chelangat, born in a family of six girls and two boys,
narrated after Sunday’s race.

“I used to hear that my friends, who were also visually impaired, were running seriously, which prompted my brother to start coaching me and I decided to take up running seriously.

What’s her message to other visually challenged runners, now that she’s made
the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics final?

“I’d like to tell those who have followed my success to take up running seriously like me, especially in the T11 class – if I managed they will also manage.”

Besides ‘Kip’ and ‘Chela’, one of their siblings has also taken up elite running.

“His name is Eric Cheruiyot Rotich and he runs in the 800 metres,” says “Kip.”

Does “Kip” push his little sister hard, sometimes?

“Sometimes the race gets tough, like today when we ran well until the last lap when I realised she was not motoring well, and I asked her to push harder,” he explains.

“I told her to be persistent so that we can at least qualify for the final.”

And “Chela” took it in her stride.

“He told me: ‘push, number three is closing in on us! Try to push and get into position three.’

“I tried but couldn’t, and that’s how we ended up fourth.”

She expressed her joy at being guided by her own brother.

“I’m so happy because he handles me gently. He often asks me: mwili iko sawa?

Tufungue Chela? (is your body feeling good, can we kick Chela?), then I’ll tell him
whether or not we can go for the finishing kick.

Back home in Londiani, their parents Johnstone Kiprotich Koech and Rachel
Chepkurui Koech, who are maize farmers, will certainly wake up early on Monday
morning in time for the 3.38am start of the final.

“We spoke to them this morning and asked them to pray for us,” Kiplangat noted.

“They told us they wished us success.”