Long distance Athlete Eric Kiptanui missed out on the men’s marathon in the ongoing Commonwealth games in Birmingham, London.
The race went down on Saturday, July 30, but the Kenyan was barred from participating because of an identification error. Kiptanui’s name was missing from the list of the marathon participants. His name was mistaken for Eric Kiplagat Sang’s, who was not anywhere close to Birmingham.
Only two Kenyans represented the country in the race with Michael Githae bagging a bronze in the race. Uganda’s Victor Kiplangat won a gold while Alphonce Simbu from Tanzania settled for a silver.
Kiptanui blames the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) for the confusion since the committee was in charge of submitting athletes’ names.
Speaking about the unfortunate encounter, Kiptanui expressed his disappointment especially after undergoing rigorous training.
“This is painful…it’s simply bad. Nothing can really explain how I felt when the gun went off to start the race with only two Kenyans in the pack… I think one needs to explain to me how my name wasn’t entered correctly,” an emotional Kiptanui said.
The 32-year old athlete arrived in Birmingham a week earlier but does not understand why no one had bothered to check when the anomaly was discovered.
“What makes me angry is that people ignore everything. People must take their work seriously,” he lamented adding that, “This is a race I could have won easily since I had no injuries.”
Other athletes who have been affected by the identification error include 800m athlete Cornelius Tuwei and steeplechaser Amos Kirui. The duo are in Birmingham and might end up not participating in their respective races since their names were not entered in the participants list.
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