Olympic champ discovers love is truly a marathon

File | NATION
Olympic marathon champion Samwel Wanjiru and his wife Teresa Njeri at a Nairobi restaurant on Valentine’s Day on February 14, 2011. Wanjiru says he has patched things up with his wife after a turbulent few months.

What you need to know:

  • World-beating marathoner has won many tough races, but overcoming differences with his wife may rank as one of his greatest conquests

He wore his first pair of shoes — plastic ones known as Sandak — while in Standard Eight, but by the age of 18 years Samuel Kamau Wanjiru had put his best foot forward in athletics and made his first million shillings.

Since then, Wanjiru has secured his place in Kenya’s glittering athletics hall of fame by winning various races, including holding the world half-marathon record and grabbing Kenya’s first ever men’s Olympic marathon gold medal in Beijing 2008.

However, the world-beater last month hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons when he was arrested and arraigned before Nyahururu senior resident magistrate Alice Mong’are for allegedly threatening to kill his wife and possessing an illegal firearm. The case is still in court.

To add to Wanjiru’s woes, his marriage seems to have been on the rocks when subsequent media reports indicated that his wife, Teresa Njeri, wanted a divorce.

But just when the couple’s relationship seemed to have reached the point of no return, they proved everyone wrong with a lovey-dovey public display on Valentine’s Day that was accorded generous media coverage.

“Let me assure my fans that all stands sorted out. I encourage those that might find themselves in a similar situation to seek advice from their seniors,” he says.

His wife concurs, saying they are a fairly young couple whose mistake was to give too much room to be manipulated from all sides.

“In marriage, there are ups and downs. We are still young and we have resolved that nobody should come between us. It was on Monday during our Valentine’s that we cemented our marriage even further,” says Teresa, a beautician.

Sponsor

And as Wanjiru races to reclaim his marriage, his eyes are firmly fixed on the next challenge — the London Marathon scheduled for April 25. He currently trains in Ngong and Eldoret.

The athlete credits his success to his sponsor, Sunichi Kobayashi. “This is the man who changed my life,” he says.

Kobayashi traced Wanjiru’s home after the athlete won the primary schools national cross country championship held in Kisumu in 1999. He trained him for one year and later assisted the athlete to set base in Japan.

“My family had no means to pay for my secondary school education. So, were it not for athletics I would probably be doing masonry or some casual work,” says Wanjiru, who now drives a top-of-the-range Toyota VX and a Range Rover and lives in a palatial home in Nyahururu.

Competing in the world’s major marathons is no mean achievement for a man whose parents divorced when he was barely five and was raised by his mother.

While in Japan, the athlete’s friends found it difficult to pronounce his middle name, Kamau, and they often referred to him as Wanjiru. The name stuck.

It was also in Japan that the foundations of his love were laid, while staying with Waweru Muturi — a fellow athlete and brother to Teresa.

Wanjiru met Teresa, then a high school student, when she visited her brother. “I organised a few dinners and before long we realised we can try life. I liked her character,” says Wanjiru. They got married in 2004.

While acknowledging that settling down at the age of 18 years was not easy, he explains he wanted to start a family early. The couple has two children: Anne Wanjiru, four; and Simon Njoroge, two.

The athlete credits his wife for building their Nyahururu home while he was in Japan. “She was in charge of the project,” says Wanjiru.

It is this love that the two have now rekindled. And Teresa, who is a key witness in Wanjiru’s court case, has already indicated that she does not wish to pursue the matter. Indeed, she told the Saturday Nation that she is considering withdrawing the case next week.

The family lawyer Ndegwa Wahome says: “She is not going to testify, so she says, and I believe from a legal perspective she cannot be compelled to testify, especially against her husband.”

Wanjiru, who recognises that he can only run for the next 10 years or so, has big plans for the future. He says he has interests in property in Nakuru and Nairobi. He has also invested in Japan, even though he says it is difficult to go into property alone in the Asian country.

“Taxation is very high in Japan,” says Wanjiru.

Inspired by their success, Wanjiru and Teresa plan to give back to society.

“We have identified orphans from Katana slum, between Ngong and Karen, whose education we would like to support,” he says.