Blind runner Wanyoike steals show but not record

Kenyan Henry Wanyoike is blind. But with the help of guide Joseph Kibunja, he stole the show when he won the men's open event in the half marathon yesterday.

Wanyoike blitzed a field of nearly 6,000 able-bodied men with a time of one hour, 10 minutes and 26 seconds. But he was still unhappy. He had hoped to finish about five minutes earlier and break the existing Hong Kong record set by Sydney Olympics marathon champion Gezahegne Abera (1:07:55) last year.

'We lost a valuable three minutes about two kilometres from the end when the motorcade in front of us stopped abruptly. I thought the race was over. When Joseph realised that it was not, we did not know which way to go and there were so many people around us. We lost time. I'm disappointed because I wanted to run 1:05,'' said the 29-year-old Wanyoike.

Tethered to Kibunja by a piece of string about a foot long, Wanyoike kept up a punishing pace. His motivation is simple - to prove to the world that his disability does not prevent him from doing anything an able-bodied man can do. For the record, Kibunja finished second with the same time, while Japan's Yoshio Mimura was third in 1:10:42.

'I'm proud of everything that I have achieved since I lost my sight at the age of 21. At the beginning, I was so depressed. It took me three years to get over the fact that I had lost my sight permanently. But now I look at it as a blessing in disguise because I have shown the world that a disability is not really a disability. In Kenya, blind people end up being beggars. I have proved a lot of people wrong,'' said Wanyoike, the world record holder for the visually impaired at the 5,000 metres and 10,000m and gold medallist in the 5,000m at the Sydney Paralympics.

Having recovered from a stroke, Wanyoike woke up one day in March 1995 to find that his world was in darkness. The optic nerves in both his eyes were totally damaged. 'I went to sleep a normal person and when I woke I couldn't believe what had happened to me,'' he said. Life changed, but he continued running with guides. Kibunja has been with him for the past two years.