Ondoro Osoro - Frankfurt 2004 (© Victah Sailer)
Kenyan Ondoro Osoro leans forward, puts a finger to his throat and says softly, “this is the exit wound, and this – he turns his head round, and touches the back of his neck – is where the bullet went in”.
Osoro, 36, who is one of the favourites to win this Sunday’s Frankfurt Marathon in Germany (31 Oct) counts himself a fortunate man to be alive at all, let alone able to run, having recovered from a frightening attack some fours years ago.
He had just been selected for the Sydney Olympic Marathon, following the fastest debut in history, 2:06:54, in winning the Chicago Marathon in the autumn of 1998. The day after selection, he drove his wife, Jemima, and their then three-year-old daughter, Dorris to visit his sister-in-law, in their home province of Kisii.
He thought little about the men admiring his Land Cruiser, as they got back in to leave, until he noticed one of them was training a gun at his pregnant wife. “Suddenly, there was another one at my door, with a gun. They pushed my wife out of the car, then me, and the other one got in the back. One of them said, ‘shoot him,’ and they shot me, and drove away with my sister-in-law and my daughter. They released them after seven kilometres.
“I thought I was dying, it was like I was in a swimming pool of blood. I was unconscious, but I could hear someone praying for me, telling me that I am not going to die”.
The Good Samaritan was right, but it took several litres of blood, two months in hospital in Nairobi and a month with neurologists in London, doing brain and spinal scans, to ascertain the extent of paralysis on his right side, before he began physical re-education.
“I went back to Chicago in September, 2001, and surprised everyone by finishing seventh in 2:11,” he recalls proudly. “I was still weak in my right arm and leg, but that’s when I knew I could run properly again”.
He has run three other marathons since then, his best being in the Rock ‘n’ Roll race, which he won in 2:09:38, in San Diego last year. Now he is readying himself for Sunday’s EuroCity Marathon in Frankfurt, Germany.
“I don’t know if I’m 100% yet, you never know that in a marathon until you’ve run the whole 42 kilometres, you could get to 41, and have to walk. But I’ve prepared hard, you have to for a marathon. You cannot succeed if you cannot commit yourself, but I like hard work. I want to do it to my best”.
Pat Butcher for the IAAF
