Sushi and shrimp distract Kenyan sprinter in Japan, officials fear disaster

They say “you can take Otieno out of the village but you cannot kick the village out of Otieno." Kenyan sprint sensation Mark Otieno has expressed his delight at tasting Japanese sushi and shrimp for the first time in his 27 years of existence after arriving in Team Kenya’s Olympic training camp in Kurume, Japan.

The sprinter, who became Kenya’s first participant to race at Athletics World Championships 100m in London, England 2017 will, alongside Ferdinad Omanyala, write another chapter of athletics history by becoming the first athletes from the country to run the short sprint at the Olympics.

Unlike the middle and long distance disciplines, sprint racing is not so much entrenched in Kenya, therefore, Otieno and his sprinting ilk have not seen enough of the outside world to interact with the culinary masterstrokes like the sushi.

“I really like the food here, this is my second time eating shrimps!! I It is really nice, then it’s my first time eating sushi and I love it!!” exclaimed the 10.03s 100m runner

Otieno has declared his dissociation from Kenyan meals until his stay in Japan ends. He wants to totally live the Olympic dream but the Kenya’s technical officials hope he’s not distracted by food from the team’s core mandate of winning medals.

Kenyan athletes have in the past been distracted by new occurrences in their lives outside the country so much that promising athletes returned poor results. Moses Mukono was mesmerized by snow at the 2013 World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland and ended up finishing 11th when he was the race favorite.

Upon his return to Nairobi he offered that snow was a huge factor in the performance that day. “I had never seen snow in my real life so I could not really run well,” Mukono said at the time

A coach who does not wish to be quoted has expressed fears that Otieno and possibly other athletes in Japan could be mesmerized by new cultures to the detriment of their performances.

“Kenyan food? No, no, no, I’m not going to take it here because I’m used to it. I just saw Ugali, in fact when I was in camp in Nairobi I didn’t taste Ugali that much. Since I’m here, I’m going to taste all the foods I have not tasted in my life. I love Japanese food; in Nairobi we have a restaurant we love with my wife. My favorite meal is fried noodles with vegetables, and I found that for lunch today

“I feel so great. The journey has been long but besides that, I’m ok. It took us two days to get to Kurume but I actually took time to explore Tokyo, I’ve seen an interesting environment. It’s really hot, but good for us.”