Marathon finish line crawl…..
On 10 March 2015, the legendary Ethiopian Marathon runner Haile Gebrselassie arrived in Accra. The purpose of his visit, incidentally his first to Ghana, was to launch Ghana’s first international Marathon race, the Accra Marathon scheduled for September 2015. Since 1987, the local Accra Milo Marathon has been run annually.
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However, an international marathon race has never been run in Ghana. Gebrselassie’s visit reminded me of the just ended Austin Marathon.
The Austin Marathon race in Texas, USA took place on Monday, 16 Feb 2015. Like most Marathon races run in different parts of the world, for example the Boston, Berlin, Barcelona and London Marathons, Austin 2015 would have passed away into thin air as routine soon after the event.
However, a significant development during the 2015 edition of the Austin Marathon race has etched this particular event into the annals of history. So, to start with, what is a marathon race and probably more importantly, how did it come by the name Marathon?
Marathon Race’s History - Phillipides
History has it that, in the years before Christ was born (BC) over two thousand years ago, Persia (modern day Iran) and Greece were mortal enemies. They had fought a series of wars, with Persia gradually winning territory. In 490 BC, the two armies fought in what Persia believed was going to be the final victory over Greece. However, at the final battle fought at the Greek village of Marathon, the Greek Army decisively and comprehensively defeated the Persian Army.
Phillipides, a Greek soldier and a long-distance runner was tasked to courier the good news to the authorities in Athens. Phillipides is said to have ran non-stop from Marathon to Athens, the capital of Greece. When he burst into the chamber of the equivalent of our Parliament here in Ghana at a time the Greek Members of Parliament (MPs,) called Magistrates were in session, he shouted: “Joy to you; we have won.” With that, he fell down, collapsed and died from exhaustion.
The distance Phillipides ran non-stop from Marathon to Athens was twenty-six miles, three hundred and eighty-five yards (26 miles, 385 yards.) The conversion to the metric system has the distance as forty-two kilometers, and two hundred metres (42.2 kilometres.)
When the modern day Olympic Games came into being in 1896, the first hosts, Greece decided having as an event, a race covering the distance Phillipides ran from Marathon to Athens to announce the victory of Greece over Persia in the Battle of Marathon. This was to immortalize the name of Phillipides and also the village called Marathon. To this day, the Marathon race is the longest and perhaps, the most difficult race in athletics, testing athletes’ endurance, physical as well as mental strength to the limit.
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Kenyan Lady Hyvon Ngetich
Now, back to the Austin 2015 Marathon race! What has accounted for its significance? For the greater part of the race, indeed up to the twenty-three-mile point, Kenyan lady Hyvon Ngetich led the female runners. With three miles to finish however, she started feeling unwell but continued running in spite of her body steadily giving way.
She was soon overtaken by her compatriot Kenyan lady Cynthia Jerop. With only two hundred metres to go, she fell down on the track absolutely exhausted and completely dazed. The race officials quickly went to her aid with a wheel-chair but she refused any form of assistance as that would have led to her disqualification.
Then came the drama! With her eyes fixed on the finish line, she crawled on all fours towards her objective. When she was only two metres away from the finish line, another athlete went past her to take the second position. Hyvon Ngetich crossed the finish line almost immediately on all fours to take the third position as the spectators gave her a thunderous standing ovation. The race director John Conley immediately directed that, Hyvon be given the same prize money as that for the lady who came second. This is what Conley said.
“ You are the toughest person on the planet…….. You ran the bravest race and crawled the greatest crawl I have ever seen in my life. You have earned much honour. I am going to adjust your prize money, so that you get the same prize you would have gotten if you were second.”
The history of the Marathon race over the years is replete with examples of extreme human courage, determination and endurance reminiscent of Phillipides’ heroic non-stop run from Marathon to Athens in 490 BC.
1968 Olympics - Tanzanian Js Akhwari
Not many sports analysts will remember the Ethiopian athlete Mamo Wolde as the winner of the 1968 Olympic Marathon in Mexico City, Mexico. Many will however remember the Tanzanian runner John Stephen Akhwari who limped into the stadium one hour after Wolde had crossed the finish line for the gold medal. Indeed, he was the last of the fifty-seven athletes who managed to finish the race out of the seventy-five who started.
Mexico City is 7,350 feet above sea level. The very thin oxygen levels at that height made long distance running more difficult. John Stephen Akhwari had only trained at the low altitude of his native Tanzania. In addition to the difficulty posed by the high altitude of Mexico City, Akhwari collided with another runner at the twenty kilometer mark of the forty-two kilometer race. He crashed into the pavement, cut and dislocated his knee, hurt his shoulder badly and fell on the ground.
For the race organizers, that should have been the end of the 1968 Olympic Marathon race for the Tanzanian. Somehow, he got up and continued with the event limping for the rest of the race, in severe pain. He hobbled across the finish line amidst a standing ovation from the few thousands of spectators who had stayed on to cheer him on. When asked after the race why he did not quit after his fall and injuries, Akhwari replied saying;
For the race organizers, that should have been the end of the 1968 Olympic Marathon race for the Tanzanian. Somehow, he got up and continued with the event limping for the rest of the race, in severe pain. He hobbled across the finish line amidst a standing ovation from the few thousands of spectators who had stayed on to cheer him on. When asked after the race why he did not quit after his fall and injuries, Akhwari replied saying;
For the race organizers, that should have been the end of the 1968 Olympic Marathon race for the Tanzanian. Somehow, he got up and continued with the event limping for the rest of the race, in severe pain. He hobbled across the finish line amidst a standing ovation from the few thousands of spectators who had stayed on to cheer him on. When asked after the race why he did not quit after his fall and injuries, Akhwari replied saying;
“ My country did not send me five thousand miles just to start the race; They sent me five thousand miles here to finish the race.”
1960 Olympics – Ethiopian Bikila Abebe
At the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Italy, Ethiopian runner Bikila Abebe joined the Ethiopian team to Italy as a last minute substitute for his countryman Wami Biratu who was suddenly taken ill just before departure for Rome. Unable to get his size for his running shoes from the sponsors Adidas on arrival in Rome, Abebe decided to run bare footed one hour to the start of the race. To everyone’s surprise, he won the race in a new world Marathon record time of 2hrs, 15 minutes and 16.2 seconds, twenty-five seconds ahead of the pre-race favourite, Moroccan Rhadi Ben Abdesselam. After the race, when asked why he chose the difficult option of running barefooted when Adidas could not provide him his size for running shoes, he answered
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To everyone’s surprise, he won the race in a new world Marathon record time of 2hrs, 15 minutes and 16.2 seconds, twenty-five seconds ahead of the pre-race favourite, Moroccan Rhadi Ben Abdesselam. After the race, when asked why he chose the difficult option of running barefooted when Adidas could not provide him his size for running shoes, he answered
“I wanted the whole world to know that my country Ethiopia, has always won with determination and heroism (courage).”
Four years later at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in Japan, Abebe replicated his Rome feat by winning another gold medal with a new record. He thus became the first man in history to win the Olympic Marathon twice. Interestingly, while training forty days before Tokyo, he collapsed and had to be operated upon for acute appendicitis. He was therefore ruled out of the Tokyo Marathon. Somehow, Abebe defied all odds not only to run but win the gold only forty days after surgery.
Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Jf Kennedy And Nelson Mandela
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During his inaugural speech as the thirty-fifth President of the United States on 20 January 1961, newly elected American President JF Kennedy said “My dear American, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” Indeed, former South African president Nelson Mandela is on record as saying in the early 1960s that, fighting for the overthrow of the unjust apartheid system was a mission he was going to live and fight for, but if need be, die for, for his country South Africa.
After twenty-seven years in jail, Nelson Mandela came out of prison to become the President of a non-apartheid South Africa in 1994. Some years earlier on, I watched a documentary in which a paratroop soldier all geared up for war, was asked by a journalist if he feared for his life. His answer was an emphatic ‘No!’ Asked why not, he answered saying “because I know that, if I jump from the aircraft and break my leg, my country will take care of me. And if I should die fighting for my country, my country will take care of my family.”
“My Country” - Patriotism
In all the examples above, the two words “my country” are constantly used by the individuals. Like Mandela, all the athletes mentioned strove to bring honour to their countries and live to enjoy the glory. However, if need be, they were ready to die in the process for their countries. Indeed, Phillipides ran twenty six miles non-stop from Marathon to Athens and died immediately after delivering the message of the victory of his country Greece over the enemy, Persia in the words “joy to you: we have won.” After Hyvon Ngetich had crawled across the finish line in Austin 2015, she was quickly taken to the hospital where she was diagnosed as having dangerously low sugar level, potentially fatal. Asked why she risked her life just to finish a race she could have quit, she said “I did it for my country.”
In the case of the Tanzanian JS Akwari who limped to cross the finish line in Mexico City in 1968 one hour after the winner, his answer to a similar question was “my country did not send me five thousand miles just to start the race, they sent me five thousand miles here to finish the race.”
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When asked what motivated him to run barefooted when the sponsors Adidas could not get him running shoes, Bikila Abebe said “I wanted the whole world to know that my country Ethiopia, has always won with determination and heroism (courage).” All the examples above fit into the Kennedy model of “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” The attribute of PATRIOTISM is the common denominator that resonates as the motivating force behind the bravado shown by the Greek soldier Phillipides, the athletes Hyvon Ngetich, JS Akwari, Bikila Abebe, the paratroop soldier and the politician Nelson Mandela.
Loyalty
However, the other side of the coin of Kennedy’s war cry for patriotism in what I call the “Kennedy Dictum,” is another famous saying by an earlier American president, the sixteenth President of the USA, Abraham Lincoln. He said, “Any nation that does not honour its heroes will not endure.” Another variant says “Any nation that does not honour its heroes is not worth dying for.” For Lincoln, individuals will die for their countries if only they know that, their patriotism will be recognized and rewarded as national heroes for their sacrifice, and not be forgotten. Failing that recognition, individuals are less likely to be predisposed towards dying for their countries.
Indeed, in all the examples cited above, the countries have honoured their heroes. Greece has ensured that the name Phillipides is etched in history forever. Soon after her dramatic finish at the Austin Marathon, Hyvon Ngetich received this message from State House in Kenya. “We congratulate Hyvon Ngetich for her brave finish at the Austin Marathon. An entire generation is inspired –The Kenyan Story.” In Ethiopia, the national sports stadium in Addis Ababa is named after Bikila Abebe.
At a lower level, soon after winning the 1960 Marathon, Abebe was presented with a brand new white Volks Wagen Beattle car, probably the equivalent of a helicopter today, by the State. JS Akwari has been honoured many times by his country and is a household name in Tanzania. Non-athlete Nelson Mandela endured twenty-seven years of imprisonment and was rewarded with the Presidency.
So, Phillipides, Hyvon Ngetich, JS Akwari, Bikila Abebe and Nelson Mandela were all proved right in their belief that, if they died in the cause of service to their countries as the paratroop soldier said, they would be remembered as heroes! In some countries, they have a “Heroes Acre” where national heroes are laid to rest. I visited the Arlington National Cemetery where American heroes are buried. I found the perpetual flame at President Kennedy’s graveside a moving tribute to a great American.
The question I ask myself is that, from the examples above, can it be taken for granted that, nations will always honour their heroes? My guess is that, if it could safely be assumed that nations would always honour their heroes, then perhaps both Presidents Abraham Lincoln and JF Kennedy would have had no need making their famous statements. In fact, a logical inference from Lincoln’s statement could be that, a nation that does not honour its heroes is probably not worth dying for.
Retirement Luxuries
Retirement has brought me a few luxuries which I could barely afford during my over forty years service to my country. Among others, I now have time to read, write, listen to radio and sleep to my fill. Listening to the highly intemperate language used on a regular basis on radio, I ask myself, do we have any heroes in this country at all? If yes, who are they and how have we honoured them? Indeed, sometimes I wonder if some of the people who talk on radio are really fellow Ghanaians.
This is because I cannot believe that any patriotic and decent Ghanaian would be so uncharitable as to show so much disrespect to another Ghanaian, particularly to past leaders and senior citizens of this country. Certainly, Ngetich, Abebe and Akhwari would never have been so unkind to their leaders.
In any case, are these Ghanaians prepared to put their lives on the line and die for this country as some of the leaders they insult did? We pride ourselves with the attribute of “Traditional Ghanaian Hospitality!” My question is, why are we so nice to foreigners and yet so unkind to one another?
Our Heroes?
Many years ago, a friend told me that, he and his colleague Medical Officers had to rally together to get their former professor the medications he needed but could not procure. The once young, very dedicated and selfless professor, who was one of the early Ghanaian lecturers who heeded President Kwame Nkrumah’s challenge of establishing the Ghana Medical School, Korle Bu Hospital in the 1960s, and who had made my friend and his colleagues doctors, was now a retired doctor whose meager pension could not meet his medical bills.
Retirement has also given me more time to visit senior citizens and fiends I could hardly visit when I was in active service. A senior citizen who needed surgery outside the country could not be helped from within. His friends from outside had to come to his aid.
Chatting with another recently, he asked “Dan, why are we treated as if we never existed in this country? Not even a phone call to find out how we are? We have paid our dues to this country and deserve better. We are alive, and not dead, please.” I could feel the pain in his voice as he spoke.
A third expressed similar sentiments about being completely forgotten about. And yet, all these gentlemen served Ghana with distinction and contributed to Ghana’s respected place on the international map.
Lessons Learnt – Bob Cole
Haile Gebrsellasie’s visit to Ghana in March 2015 as Ethiopia’s ambassador is to help launch Ghana on to the international arena of the Marathon race. His country recognizes his contribution to the nation. I am not oblivious of the Sports Complex at Kaneshie being named after Ghana’s and Africa’s greatest boxing icon “Professor” Azumah Nelson. Incidentally, Azumah is the only African boxer to be inducted into the International Hall of Fame by the World Boxing Council.
I also know of the Accra Sports Stadium being named after Mr Ohene Djan, Ghana’s first Sports Director in the early 1960s, and the Kumasi Sports Stadium being named after the footballer Baba Yara. However, there are many more in other fields who qualify to be recognized as national heroes who are almost forgotten at home, but remembered by outsiders. At a United Nations facility in Kampala, Uganda I visited, the central auditorium is called “Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse Hall.”
In far away Zimbabwe, there is the “Lt Gen Emmanuel Alexander Erskine Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution.” Lebanon has conferred its highest national honour on Lt Gen Erskine and Lt Gen SK Obeng in recognition of their sacrifices to Lebanon as United Nations Force Commanders. I stand corrected, but here in Ghana, I have not heard of any facilities named after any of these illustrious Ghanaians.
Years ago, when one very popular source of entertainment was the Saturday night “Dance” from 9pm to 3am during which Ghanaian bands performed, I attended one at which one of Ghana’s earliest musicians Bob Cole came to sing. Then in the twilight of his career, Bob made a passionate appeal saying “now that I need your help most, please do something before I die. Do not wait till I die before you honour me with a beautiful funeral.” Let us heed Bob Cole’s significant appeal, and do as much as we can for our past heroes before they are recalled to eternally rest.
Conclusion
In conclusion, between the two great sayings quoted above by Presidents Abraham Lincoln and JF Kennedy, it is evident that, individuals will be patriotic and willing to die for their countries if they believe that, their country will be loyal to them and recognize and reward them even if they die. In the words of the paratroop soldier “if I jump from the aircraft and break my leg, my country will take care of me. And if I should die fighting for my country, my country will take care of my family.”
Greece honoured Phillipides, Ethiopia honoured Abebe, Tanzania honoured JS Akwari and South Africa has honoured Nelson Mandela. Of course, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah and His Excellency Mr Kofi Annan have had institutions named after them in Ghana. Ohene Gyan, Azumah Nelson and Baba Yara have had stadia named after them. In Uganda, Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse has been recognized and rewarded and so has Lt Gen Erskine in Zimbabwe. Lebanon has honoured Lt Gen Erskine and Lt Gen Obeng.
However, there are many unsung heroes still awaiting recognition. May the presence of the Ethiopian Marathon icon Haile Gebrselassie here in Ghana as a recognized Ethiopian hero to launch Ghana’s first international Marathon race in September 2015 mark the beginning of the recognition and reward of Ghana’s unsung heroes.
Finally, let us be more temperate in the language we use on one another as decent Ghanaians, especially on our leaders and senior citizens. For, they were, or are ordinary mortals and therefore fallible, just as we the critics are. That way, the spirit of patriotism with all its attendant benefits, will be whipped up in the younger generation of Ghanaians for our great nation Ghana.
Like Hyvon Ngetich, Ghanaians will crawl on all fours to cross the Marathon finish line, even when they are almost unconscious. Like Bikila Abebe, they will defy surgery forty days earlier to cross the Marathon finish line for the gold medal. Like JS Akwari, they will limp across the Marathon finish line in spite of severe injuries.
Finally if need be, like Philippides, Ghanaians will run twenty-six miles, three hundred and eighty-five yards or forty-two kilometers and two hundred metres non-stop, to deliver the message “joy to you; we have won,” after which they will happily drop dead. All these, Ghanaians will do if they know that, in the words of the paratroop soldier, “if I jump from the aircraft and break my leg, my country will take care of me. And if I should die fighting for my country, my country will take care of my family.”
Writer’s email: dkfrimpong@yahoo.com