BY ODONGO WATTA
Sometime towards the end 2013, Athletics Kenya (AK) convened an unusual seminar in Eldoret that brought together athletes and a number of experts in banking, investment, insurance, nutrition, medicine, and retirement schemes.
At the time, AK vice president David Okeyo said the move was borne out of the need to educate athletes on how best to invest their monies given that some of them had, in the past, blown away their earnings due to lack of investment knowledge.
A first of its kind, the idea was well received by the media and other stake holders as being long overdue and although AK has subsequently failed to execute a follow through on the initiative, there has been a growing level of awareness amongst both active and retired Kenyan athletes on the need for sound investment.
It, however, has to be said that in country where wealth declaration and revelation of personal remunerations are largely frowned upon, most athletes naturally hold a conservative position in as far as disclosure of the actual figures of their earnings, endorsements and sponsorships goes, let alone personal investment.
Unlike in other places in the world, the Kenyan public, to a large extent, knows very little about the business ventures and into what use their sports heroes and heroines put their great windfall.
The case of a certain Pamela Jelimo would suffice here. In 2008, aged just 18, the Beijing Olympics 800m champion became the first Kenyan to win the IAAF Golden League (presently the IAAF Diamond League) jackpot of $1 million (about Sh80 million at the time). Jelimo also won money in all six events that made up the jackpot.
Curiously, the once invincible Jelimo, who, unbelievably, is five years shy of her 30th birthday, has long lost her athletic prowess.
The bigger mystery though, is how she invested – or rather failed to invest – her fat pay-cheque. A lot of theories have been advanced but I would be peddling in rumour if I said I knew what she did with the money.
Yet, a few investment mavericks stand out among their peers in the Kenyan sporting circles. Kenyan-born Dutchwoman Lorna Kiplagat, without a doubt, leads the pack.
The three-time IAAF World Half Marathon champion and former IAAF World Cross Country Championships winner is best known for her multi-billion shilling world class High Altitude Training Centre in Iten which she set up together with her Dutch husband Pieter Langerhorst in 1999.
Set at an altitude of 2400m above sea level in the heart of what is considered the cradle of Kenya’s track talent, the ultra-modern facility – which has since incorporated a Sh1 billion Sports Academy for girls – there is no guessing why the training venue is fast becoming a favourite destination for many top global long distance runners.
Some runners such as the British pair of Mo Farah, the Olympic 5,000m and 10,000m champion, and women’s marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe, are familiar figures in Iten where they often spend considerable time at Lornah’s facility more so ahead of major athletics events.
But that is not all to Lornah’s business acumen. The multiple long distance champion has just recently launched an African women’s sportswear clothing line. Self-branded ‘Lorna’ the line got the best possible approval ratings on its launch that was presided over by First Lady Margaret Kenyatta in Nairobi on February 28, 2015.
As matter of fact, the First Lady was the among first people to sign up with the ‘Lorna’ brand and even used the apparel in training for the second edition of the First Lady’s Half Marathon that was held on March 08, 2015.
“In my 20 years as an elite athlete, I have been looking for apparel that is both fashionable and a joy to wear; unfortunately, I did not find any, which is why I decided to make the bold move and launch one myself,” Lorna was quoted by the Daily Nation during the launch of her brand as saying.
Paul Tergat, who is Lornah’s contemporary in long distance running, is another athlete who has managed to make a seamless transition from sports into the business world.
The multiple World Cross Country and World Half Marathon Championships winner is best known as the brains behind the lucrative Sports Personality of the Year Awards (Soya) through his Sports Marketing and Public Relations company Fine Touch Communications.
The Soya Awards has managed to tie down one the biggest profit making corporation in the region, Safaricom, into a multi-million shilling long-term sponsorship deal that other investors can only dream of.
Little wonder then that now in its twelfth year, the annual awards has come to be considered the holy grail of world beating Kenyan sportsmen and women.
While Lorna and Tergat can be considered to have broken new grounds in the investment of the earnings from the track, other athletes such as Wilson Kipsang and Moses Tanui have likewise cut their own niche in the business world.
Former world marathon record holder Kipsang is the owner of the elegant Keellu Resort and Hotel in Iten while Tanui – the 1996 and 1998 Boston Marathon champion and 2000 Chicago Marathon winner – is involved in real estate development through his Komora Centre in Eldoret, and is the proprietor of the Grand Prix Hotel, also in Eldoret town.
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