In 1968, Kenya made her second post-independence appearance at the Olympics. All roads had led to Mexico City for the XIX Olympiad with our wachezaji keen to make a splash. More athletes had qualified for track events and second-time participants such as Naftali Temu were keen to add to Kenya’s Olympic medal cache.
Naftali’s journey to the Mexico City Olympics began in the hilly terrains of Nyamira where he joined his high school’s competitive athletics team with one goal – to be the school sports champion. After high school he joined the Kenya Army where he had ample training time and where he grew his hopes of securing a slot in the growing national athletics team. His efforts paid off and in 1964 when he, along with other hopefuls, flew to Tokyo to represent Kenya. Naftali was among the athletes in the Olympics marathon – an intense introduction to the international games that had him finish 49th – a below average completion for the budding runner.
He remained undeterred, returning home to double down on his training. In 1965, Kenya fielded a strong team at the inaugural All Africa Games with Temu coming in behind teammate Kipchoge Keino in the the 5000m, where he bagged a silver for Kenya.
Three years later, Naftali had qualified for Mexico as an athlete in the 10,000m race where he was up against other African greats such as Ethiopia’s Mamo Wolde and Tunisia’s Mohammed Gammoudi. This Olympics marked the emergence of the East Africans. The race was so challenging that several athletes dropped out at various stages of the event but a keen Naftali Temu hang on to Wolde’s heels setting in place the continual charge between Ethiopia and Kenya on the athletics field. In what is remembered as one of Kenya’s most outstanding moments, Temu hastened his pace overtaking Wolde barely ten seconds to the finish line finishing first and clinching the gold!
It was a moment of superb victory for Temu, the Kenyan team and the Kenyan republic, our first gold medal at the Olympics.
We honour Naftali Temu, for lifting Kenya to the top.
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