While in school, fellow pupils teased her saying she took to running like a fish to water because of the bottle of soda and piece of bread that was usually given at the end of the race. But Catherine Ndereba knew that she was just utilizing an inborn talents that would, in later years, turn her into a celebrity.
She was driven by her faith and belief that with God everything was possible. Indeed God has rewarded her with a string of high profile results. It is for this that at the end of every race, she kneels down to thank God.
‘God is the source of all success. There isn’t much we can achieve without God’s guidance’, says Ndereba, a four-time Boston Marathon champion, with a smile.
There is so much you can learn in a conversation with Ndereba about her inner faith and how it has propelled her to success. Her personal life and achievements are closely inter linked through her conviction that ‘Faith in Godis the most important guiding principles in our lives’.
It is on this basis that she is an icon who has gone ahead to become one of Kenya’s most successful woman athlete. She has Olympics Silver, a World Championship title and a couple of other top-of-the-range victories to show for her career.
‘I had a conviction that what I was doing would produce results in the end. I truly believe that I could achieve anything with God’s guidance’, she said.
As the conversation progresses, Ndereba refuses to be drawn into how her fame had changed her personal lifestyle though she prefers to remain down-to-earth. She is not overwhelmed at all by her status. ‘We all have our time and we can not achieve anything without God’, she says.
She captured world headlines a little over six years ago when she became the first Kenyan woman to win the Boston Marathon. Her time that was inside 2:20 signaled the arrival of a new star.
Her fortunes improved further in 2004 when she successfully defended the Boston title in a competitive time of 2:23.53. The same year, she won the Chicago Marathon title in a new world record of 2:18:47.
‘It was a fantastic start to the season(2001) and my prayer was to go out and do something extraordinary. It happened in Chicago when I set the new record’, she said.
Staying on top was not going to be easy.
Kenya’s Margaret Okayo took the Boston crown in 2002. Ndereba went on to lose twice to world record holder Paula Radcliffe of Britian in the Chicago and London marathons. Radcliffe went ahead to beat Ndereba in London 2003.
She, however, fought on and when the World Championships in 2003 in France came calling, she did not disappoint Kenyans when she won the title.
The gold medal in France was the second by a Kenyan woman after Sally Barsosio achieved that feat in 1997. Earlier in the 2003 season, her attempts to wrestle the New York Marathon was unsuccessful as Okayo emerged winner.
Two successive wins in Boston (2004 and 2005) not only eased her up but the performance elevated her to an all time great. The Olympic silver in the summer summed up her feeling as she said ‘it will remain one of m y greatest achievements’.
‘Reaching this level( an Olympic silver) to me will always be something to cherish. My prayers were answered and I was content with the silver medal even though my aim was to win the gold’, she said.
Mant top runners, including Radcliffe, succumbed to the heat in Athens but Ndereba ran a determined race losing to Japanese Mizuki Noguchi. For achievements in 2004, the SOYA judges named her the country’s Sports Woman of the Year.
Despite all her achievements, the mother of one has preferred to remain a member of the Prisons Services Department.
Married to Anthony Maina, Ndereba spends most of the time in the U.S where she trains in Pennsylvania under former London ace El Mustapha Nechchadi.
Born in Nyeri, to a family of nine, Ndereba has been eager to assist upcoming athletes. She is currently involved in the sponsorship of events in her home area in what she says is ‘trying to give back to society what I have gained from the track’. As a way of motivation, her sister, Anastasia, seems to be following in her footsteps having won a couple of international marathons. |
