Priest behind Nyeri high altitude training project

Athletes from Nyeri County and its surrounding regions are set to reap the benefits of high altitude training upon the completion of the Mugunda Youth and Education center in Nairutia as the region embarks on matching Rift Valley as a gold mine for sporting talent.

According to Mugunda Parish Priest Father Romano Fillipi – who is sponsoring the project in conjunction with Italian Salvalaggio Mario – the project is quarter-way done and has made appeals to the local authorities to help fast track its construction.

Romano averred athletes from the Mt. Kenya region will not have to make long travels to the Iten High Altittude Training Center (HATC) in Eldoret noting that the region has vastly similar climatic conditions.

“We’re about 2300m above sea level here but Iten is a little bit higher. Iten attracts many people even from abroad so our hope is we can do the same here.

“We started this center with this idea that we don’t want the youth of this area to move into the uncertainties in Nairobi. We hope that we can convince them that it is possible to achieve their dreams here at home,” Romano told Citizen Digital.

Kennedy Muriithi Njiru, a fifth finisher at the 3000m Olympics trials held last year in June and July and who holds his training in the Aberdare Ranges says the project will improve their endurance and help challenge the dominance of their Rift counterparts.

“My endurance gets better when I train at the Aberdares which puts me at par with athletes from Eldoret. This project could transform the lives of many youths and it’s one that we’ll all be proud of one day. It will be a convenient btraining ground for athletes who won’t have to spend on travel and accommodation just to train in places far off from here.

“I was at the Olympics last year where I finished fifth in the 3000m steeplechase and that was a mortale booster for me,” Kennedy.

The estimated cost for the completion of the project – according to Mutitu Water Project CEO Peter Muturi – rounds up to more than KSh100m and will have the capacity to accommodate at least 60,000 competitors.

Johnston Kamau, an area resident, said he foresees the project having a positive impact on the economic and social lives of the youth.

Romano’s exploits mirror those of Brother Colm O’Connell, the Coach of two-time OIympics 800m gold medallist David Rudisha.

O’Connell’s story is like a fairy tale. When Colm O’Connell, an Irish Patrician Brother from Cork, decided to take on a teaching job in Iten in 1976, he never expected that he would become the country’s most successful middle-distance coach of all time.

Brother Colm had neither been an athlete nor a coach before. He was thrown into the water – and he learnt to swim. After only four years, he became responsible for athletics at the renowned St Patrick’s High School. Many Olympic and World champions have been coached by the modest and ever-friendly Irishman.

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athletics nyeri county eldoret Iten High Altitude Training Centre (HATC)

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