In sports, more so, athletes, it is not the gold medal that matters but a golden heart as expressed by various marathoners that have continued to marvel the world.
Many people around the world have praised Kenya’s athlete Simon Cheprot for his rare show of sportsmanship when like the Biblical ‘Good Samaritan’, he stopped to help his fallen Kenyan colleague Kenneth Kipkemoi cross the finishing line, thus losing his place as a top contender in the Okpekpe Int’l 10KM Road Race in Nigeria on Saturday.
The partners and local Edo State politicians were moved by the rare deed and collectively gave him KSh 1.5 million as appreciation.
It is better to have a Golden heart than to have a Gold medal. This is a true show of sportsmanship by Simon Cheprot when he helped his colleague cross the finish line at Okpekpe Road Race. pic.twitter.com/Wp1SrhdltD
— BISHOP™ (@LilKoima) May 27, 2019
Here is the video:
Seemingly, Cheprot is not alone.
In 2013, a Spanish athlete Iván Fernández Anaya was competing in a cross-country race in Burlada, Navarre.
He was running second, some distance behind race leader Abel Mutai – a Kenyan.
As they entered the finishing straight, he saw the Kenyan runner – the certain winner of the race – mistakenly pull up about 10 meters before the finish, thinking he had already crossed the line.
Fernández Anaya quickly caught up with him, but instead of exploiting Mutai’s mistake to speed past and claim an unlikely victory, he stayed behind and, using gestures, guided the Kenyan to the line and let him cross first.
Kenya’s elite racer Jacqueline Nyetipei Kiplimo during the 2010 Zheng-Kai marathon saw a Chinese disable athlete suffering from dehydration and struggling to drink water.
So she ran with him from the 10km to the 38km mark, aiding him through all the water stations, until she was confident he could finish the race.
She may have sacrificed her first place, as she came in 2nd in the race, but for sure, she also restored faith in humanity.
In the same wavelength, in Rio marathon 2016 edition, a New Zealand and US female athletes embodied Olympic spirit after they stopped to help each other up after falling together midway through their race.
New Zealand Distance runner Nikki Hamblin and US runner Abbey D’Agostino were four laps from the end of the 5000m in Rio 2016 when they collided.
Here is the video: