Kenya has won the first Gold medal at the 2016 ParaOlympic games taking place in Rio, Brazil, it has emerged.
The glittering gold was won by Samuel Mushai Kimani who breezed to the tape to clinch 5000 meters win in a personal best of 15:16.11.
Mushai was five seconds away from smashing the Paralympics and world record set by Henry Wanyoike on September 24, 2004 in Greece, Athens. While being guided by his running partner James Boit, Mushai lived up to expectation in the hotly contested race, occasionally shifting positions with Brazilian Santos Odair.
But he finally outwitted Odair to the tape with an amazing tactical finishing kick to the tape. Odair managed to settle for silver in 15:17.55 while Wilson Bii, who had noted earlier that the race was very much open and only the luckiest would emerge champion.
Mushai said the win has inspired him to do even greater things as he looks forward to defending of men’s 1500m (T11) on Sunday. He is currently the race record holder.
Congratulations to him. Another feather for the Kenyans in the #nigeriavskenya twitter war.