Most sports personalities, not only in Kenya but also around the world have a touching story on how they made it to the top. For some like Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo and Arsenal new signing Oleksandr Zinchenko, the road to success was filled with numerous bottlenecks.
Emmanuel Wafula’s journey to the World Under 20 Athletics Championships is not different. He had to overcome a lot of challenges before finally making it to the squad that will represent Kenya in Estadio Olímpico Pascual Guerrero in Santiago de Cali, Colombia.
The 17-year-old revealed that he was at one time forced to drop out of high school due to lack of school fees.
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“I do not come from a well-to-do background and so school fees were quite a challenge. I had to spend some time out of school. Rather than pitying myself, I decided to intensify my training to see if I could go far in athletics and uplift our living standards,”
“Thankfully later on, my school principal allowed me to resume studies while training at the same time. I started training for the national trials in 2020 during the Covid-19 period and made it to the national trials last year,” Wafula was quoted by Capital Sports.
Although the fast-rising star failed to qualify for the 2021 Under 20 World Athletics Championship staged at Kasarani, Nairobi, he did not give up. Wafula went back to the drawing board and came back stronger than ever before.
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The Bungoma-born runner recently won the 3,000m steeplechase race at the national trials held in Nairobi and is currently in Colombia ahead of the championships which kicks off on Monday August 1 to Saturday August 6.
Wafula hopes to reclaim Kenya’s lost glory in the discipline particularly after two consecutive failures at both the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and the just concluded senior world championships held in Oregon, United States.
“As for me, I have set gold as my minimum target going to Cali. This race (steeplechase) has been traditionally ours and we will fight tooth-and-nail to cover the country’s shame in Colombia,”
“Regardless, I do not feel any pressure and would like to encourage all Kenyans not to lose hope in us but cheer us on,” ended Wafula.
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