This man Daniel Matasi Rudisha

Mzee Daniel Rudisha ole Matasi, who died of a heart attack on Wednesday night, is assured of a secure place in the annals of Kenyan sporting history.

Born on August 11, 1945, the late Mzee Rudisha died aged 73 at the War Memorial Hospital in Nakuru. In recent times he had reportedly suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure.

He will be buried today at his home in Kilgoris, Narok County, ironically soon after yesterday’s burial of yet another renowned athlete, the late Nyandika Maiyoro. The quintessential Maasai polygamist, apart from his two wives, the late Rudisha left behind a host of children and grandchildren.

Personally, news of Mzee Rudisha’s death revived fond memories of several hours spent chatting with him and members of his family on February 12, 2011 at his home just outside Kilgoris.

During the chat on a sunny Saturday afternoon, the renowned athlete bemoaned the fact that at the time only three of his age mate buddies were still surviving. He was then aged 65 years.

A contented husband and dad, during the 2011 chat Mzee Rudisha was alert and jovial and was evidently ageing gracefully despite an incipient attack of arthritis that was causing him some discomfort.

Initially alone in the simply furnished sitting room when the Nation team came calling, he calmly explained that his two wives had gone out shopping.

“Those two never leave each other,” he quipped, adding that before his marriage he had proposed to Naomi, who is the mother of his illustrious world-beating athlete David Lekuta Rudisha, who was born on December 17, 1988. This illustrious son of Rudisha went on to break the world 800m world record and is the reigning Olympic champions.

As for the senior Rudisha, whose mother was his father Matasi’s third wife, his own decision to become a polygamist saw him thrown out of the African Inland Church, but he still went ahead to sire 20 children with his two wives. By the time of the interview six of the children had died.

'AFFABLE AND CHEERFUL'

Naturally affable and cheerful, the retired athlete’s eyes glittered as he reminisced about an astonishing sporting career that went back to his primary school days in Kilgoris in the 1960s, when his athletics career took off.

“In 1964 I was the 400 metres champion in the Rift Valley region,” he stated wistfully, adding that after leaving primary school he joined the Thogoto Teacher Training College in faraway Kikuyu.

While studying there in 1965-66 he qualified to join Kenya’s 400 metres team, having easily brushed away competition from such able contemporaries as Kimaru Songok and Wilson Kiplagat.

By 1966 he was a part of the Kenyan athletics contingent to the Commonwealth Games held in Kingston, Jamaica. He was initially leading the pack during the 400 metres heat, he recalled, but unfortunately pulled a leg muscle and dropped back.

He only managed number two during the heats, but the leg problem worsened, and in the finals he finished fourth in a race he feels he could have easily won if fully fit.

His performance however improved the next year — 1967.

“I became really tough,” he said with a wry smile, and soon he was dominating the 400 metres races all over East Africa, even taking part in meets in Kampala and Dar-es-Salaam.”

With his star rising rapidly, the lad from rural Kilgoris soon found himself shaking hands with Queen Elizabeth of Britain and her husband Prince Philip, an event he recalled with much pride.

Soon he also participated in the World Games held in Helsinki, Finland, which were a pre-cursor to the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and also shone in other global meets.

During the men’s 400 metres race in Mexico Rudisha finished a non-qualifying sixth in his heat. During the 2011 interview he blamed his failure to make it to the finals on the fact that he was running in the wrong lane.

According to him there were 88 people competing in the heats, among them the renowned sprinter Lee Evans. Soon after the event a determined Rudisha showed his real mettle as part of the all-star Kenyan 4x400m relay team.

Apart from Rudisha the team was made up of the equally legendary athletes Hezekiah Nyamao, Charles Asati and the late Naftali Bon, and went on to sensationally win the silver medal.

Running with synchronised precision, the quartet was credited with placing Kenya firmly on the global athletics map, while also laying the foundation for yet another formidable Kenyan 4x400m team.

It was that other team, made up of Asati, Nyamao, Robert Ouko and the late Julius Sang, that made waves during the Olympic Games in Munich four years later.

Sensationally, the team won Kenya’s and Africa’s only Olympic gold medal to date in the 4x400m relay.

Rudisha, he eventually retired from athletics and went into teaching, ending up becoming an education officer.

He also left an indelible mark as a great athletics coach who nurtured such greats as Billy Konchellah, another product of Trans-Mara.

The latter won the 800 metres race at the World Athletics Championships in 1987.