Emmanuel Wanyonyi shares how borrowed shoes sparked his successful athletics career

Emmanuel Wanyonyi has given an inspiring account of how his athletics career started courtesy of a borrowed pair of shoes before several challenges nearly forced him out.

Olympics 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi has shared how he stumbled upon his athletics career after borrowing a pair of running shoes from a friend.

Wanyonyi has had a meteoric rise and at just the age of 20, he is already an Olympics champion, world silver medallist, two-time Diamond League winner and has the joint second fastest time in history.

However, all these would not have been possible were it not for his curiosity and determination.

“I found one of my friends who had extra pairs of shoes and I asked him what are these for and he said they were for running. I asked him if I could borrow one pair, he thought I was joking, but agreed to give me,” Wanyonyi told NTV.

“He gave me the shoes and a running short so I told him; ‘tomorrow morning we should be in the field for training,’ and yet I had never run. We woke up early and went for training.

“I did not tire easily but he told me that was enough for the day. I took a rest and the following morning my legs were in pain but I did not give up, if anything, I did more because I felt if I did not train, I would feel more pain.”

Wanyonyi says that is the moment he felt running could be something that might change his life although he encountered a lot of challenges that nearly saw him quit.

“From there, I started training because I was not going to school. I would go when the students were out for games and train,” he added.

“Some people kept asking who is this guy and others thought I was mad but I knew I could run.

“I was struggling because training is hard but I decided to put all my focus on it. That was in 2017, but at some point, I became sick. I stopped briefly, but when I recovered, I went back to training.”

By this time, the youngster had stopped going to school after which he worked as a herdsman for a number of people before he gave up and returned home.

But with life difficult and a lot of time on his hands, he had decided to kill off the boredom by running and after several training sessions, he felt he was good enough to represent the school.

“I went to the school and asked if I could run for them but they said I must be a student first,” said Wanyonyi.

“I asked myself, how was I going to start when I stopped school long time ago in Class Three. I said it was impossible to go back to school.

“However, I returned the following day and kept running. They accepted me to run for them and I did well until we qualified for the national games when it became a problem.

“It meant I had to go to school because I could not sit at home and go to run for the school. I asked my friends for school uniform. I went to Class Seven direct after talking to the teachers and it was a struggle because it was like starting again.”

Wanyonyi’s decision to go to school was solely to actualise his dream of running but it met resistance from those close to him.

“Some my friends were not happy that I had gone back to school and they kept telling me to stop because I did not know anything but I ignored them,” he said.

“I struggled and ran for the school and qualified for the regional games which gave me motivation and I vowed to ensure I reached the national level.”

Wanyonyi’s prowess in the school games would catch the attention of former world 800m champion Janeth Jepkosgei who integrated him at her training camp and as they say, the rest is history.