COLLINS KIBET RONO

1500m runner turned teacher and coach who taught the children of Langas to chase the sun

Collins Kibet Rono's father gave him a stopwatch when he was nine years old, and he never put it down. By ten he was timing the walk to the well; by twelve he had timed every runner in the village who would stand still long enough; by fifteen he was the one being timed, dawn after dawn along the murram road behind the family farm, with his father waiting at the gate with a flask of chai.

Born in 1994, he moved to Eldoret at eighteen on a sports scholarship to Moi University, and trained at Kipchoge Keino Stadium beside athletes whose names the world knows. A middle-distance runner, he won the 1500 metres at the university games in 2016 and ran for his county at the national championships. A stubborn hamstring ended his professional hopes in 2019. Most people would have left the track. Collins stayed, took a job teaching physical education at a primary school in Langas, and founded the Langas Young Runners with eleven children, two stopwatches and a borrowed field.

Within five years the club had ninety members, and three of them had won scholarships. He never charged a fee. Parents paid in eggs, vegetables and once a very surprised goat. He was gentle, funny, and strict about two things: stretching, and thanking whoever held the finish tape. He sang in the choir at AIC Eldoret, supported Arsenal despite what it did to his blood pressure, and cooked ugali with sukuma wiki for the whole team after Saturday sessions.

Collins died in July 2025, aged thirty-one, after a brief illness, five years after the father who had given him his first stopwatch. He leaves his mother, his sister, his brother, his partner Faith, and ninety young runners who keep the clock going.

“Run the first lap for yourself and the last for whoever is behind you.”