Mutwiri Mutuota
29 March 2008
Nairobi — At 32 when most athletes are heading to the twilight of their careers, Mark Kiptoo is just warming up for a chance of belated glory.
A career military man, the army corporal will be making his World Cross Country debut, a testament of what one can achieve through perseverance, focus and drive to achieve one's goals in life.
A late bloomer in truest sense of the phrase, here is a man who had never put on spikes until five years ago, when he discovered he had the talent and since then, has set about trying to make up for lost time winning gold and silver at the World Military Games before coming second at the competitive national cross country trials.
Upon Completion of his O' Level education at Mukumu High School in 1996, Kiptoo joined the Armed Forces the following year and passed out in May 1998.
"When you join the army, you learn a lot. You start seeing things in a different angle. Discipline is paramount and a priority because with it you can achieve anything and the army has given me that and I couldn't be where I am today without the military."
Posted to the Air Force, he immediately joined Kenya Armed Forces Technical Training College from June 1998 to September 2002 to undertake a detailed course.
He successfully completed his studies and was posted to Laikipia Air Base in September 2002.
He had served for two years when he had his first taste of athletics in 2004. "We were having an inter-wings competition at the barracks and my friends implored me to help my technical wing by running and that was my first race."
Though he didn't win, the athletics bug had finally caught up with him but before he could get into the hung of things, military duty saw him posted to Burundi for 14 months on peacekeeping mission between January 2005 and March 2006.
Kiptoo returned to Kenya and rejoined Armed Forces training team in May 2006 and continued training ahead of the 2006-2007 cross-country campaign.
At last year's national trials Kiptoo was relegated to 12th after running 39:40.
He then won the 5,000m race at the Armed Forces Championships before proceeding to the national Athletics Championships set for June 14-16.
Here, Kiptoo kept close to eventual winner Thomas Longosiwa but lost out in a bruising battle in the final stretch finishing second in 13:50.0.
His second place finish saw him achieve his first goal -that of representing the country at an international event as he was selected in July's Algiers All African Games squad.
In Algiers, Kiptoo was affected by the adverse conditions that beleaguered most of the Kenyan team and could only manage a ninth place finish in the final ran on July 22 in a time of 13:32.07.
At the World Military Games in Hyderbad India last year, Kiptoo would enjoy his biggest success to date striking 5000m gold and 10,000m silver as Kenya emerged winners.
On March 1, he lined up at the national country championships cum trials, staying in the pack until the last 300m when he and Gideon Ngatuny sprinted away in a thrilling tussle for the tape.
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