Lady luck finally smiles on Caroline Rotich

The newly-crowned Boston Marathon champion, Caroline Chemutai Rotich, is a living proof that patience pays in athletics.

Rotich finished in 2:24:55 after passing halfway in 1:12:45 to win the marathon, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, ahead of Ethiopia’s Mare Dibaba in 2:24:59, and Buzunesh Deba another 10 seconds adrift in 2:25:09.

Rotich’s victory is the biggest achievement in her career so far.

The runner from the tomato and vegetable producing cosmopolitan Pesi settlement scheme in Laikipia West, Laikipia County was yesterday described by colleagues who grew up with her as a person who has gone through hard times to reach where she is.

Her biggest aspiration in the sport is her cousin, Julius Kimutai, also a professional athlete.

After leaving Marura Primary School, she went to Japan where she joined Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School that is famous for producing good runners among them the late Samuel Kamau Wanjiru who won Kenya’s first Olympic marathon gold in Beijing in 2008.

On graduating in 2002, she failed to join any company in Japan and was forced to return to Kenya where she joined Kimbia Athletics club of Nyahururu under coach Ibrahim Kinuthia between 2005 and 2006.

“I went looking for her to come and join Kimbia camp and found her staying with her sister in Checkpoint area, away from her home,” said Charles Waweru, who was with her in Japan. The club collapsed and she went back to her parents in Pesi. She later went to Kericho where she joined Kipterden athletics club in 2007.

It is from Kipterden that she ventured in to the rich American athletics market where she has been based since.

CHEERING CROWD

Her Boston win on Monday has inspired those budding athletes who have had a chance to get in contact with her during her brief visits to Nyahururu. She was the focus of a cheering crowd of athletes who watched the women race from various hotels in Nyahururu town.

The runner represented Kenya in marathon at the 13th edition of World championships in Daegu and finished 29th in 2:39.07. Her PB in marathon is 2:23:22 attained at the 2012 Chicago marathon. Her best time in half marathon is 1:09.09 achieved that the 2013 New York half marathon.

On Monday, Rotich left her victory late, as yet again Boston’s women’s race came down to the final strides on Boyleston Street.

This time the duel was Rotich and Mare Dibaba, with Buzunesh Deba, last year’s second-place finisher, left behind only as the trio made the first of two corners in the race’s closing stages, within a kilometre of the finish.

Dibaba seemed to have the upper hand, but Rotich found another gear and was able to pull away in the last strides, putting four seconds on Dibaba in what seemed like the last inches. Rotich finished in 2:24:55 after passing halfway in 1:12:45. Dibaba was four seconds back in 2:24:59, and Deba another 10 seconds adrift in 2:25:09.

“I swung wide,” Rotich said of her move on the final corner, “and I thought, ‘we’re so far away, I can’t see the finish line’. So I fell back, but then I saw the finish line, and I came back and had to give all the strength I had to reach the finish line.

“In Santa Fe (where Rotich trained this winter) we had cold weather, not too much snow. I knew there would be a chance of getting cold. I saw there would be a chance of rain, and I was happy it could be rain instead of cold, but it was cold. I got through because I’ve been training in wind and cold.”