Moscow, Russia Last night. AFP PHOTO.
By Tuhairwe Joab
It’s a great honor and pride to see our own Stephen Kiprotich beat all his competitors in the Moscow Marathon. Every Ugandan must be happy to see this and he deserved all the heroic welcome that he received when he landed at Entebbe airport.
Kiprotich made history both in Uganda all over the world for winning Olympics and World Championship in a row. However, giving Kiprotich heaven on earth is unfair and sends a bad signal to other athletes in Uganda. Stephen was promoted to a rank of Superintendent of Prisons as soon as he landed into the country, vision group and other well-wishers collected close to 150 million shillings and this sum is just an additional token to the guaranteed 50,000 US dollars that comes with the gold medal.
In this year’s World Championship, Uganda had over 10 participants in the different categories i.e 5000 meters, 800 and marathon and they included; Musagala, Kipsiro, Abraham Kiprimo, Jacob Kiraptany, and Benjamin Kipragat. However, deciding to appreciate only the winner in Kiprotich sends a bad signal to other athletes that went with him and others that are in the offing. He’s been given VIP treatment and a chance to address a congregation at the State House which is OK because he won but what of the rest of the team that he went with, don’t they deserve anything? They deserve a warm welcome too because they participated in the name of our country despite failing to grab any medal which is not easy because of the stiff completion.
As it was promised last time when Kiprotich won, the Government instead of praising one person should set up facilities that will help other athletes to develop their talents. Let scouts go as far as Kabale, Gulu, Lira and other parts of the country and am sure there are men and women that can represent us in other field like javelin, short put, 100 meters, high jump, long jump such that Uganda can have more participants like other countries.
It’s a habit of Ugandans and now in our leaders that we only recognize you, if you are the winner but the moment you start going down then everything is gone too. It was the same scenario with Kipsiro and Inzikuru, when the two won, they were heroes but when they went off form, no one desires to know what they are up to and yet I think, if those people were kept in that form and may be advised on what to do and what to do away with then they would still be on top.