Nyantika Maiyoro Kenya’s pioneer international athlete passed on Sunday at the age of 88 at the Christa Marianne Hospital in Kisii.
Kennedy Nyantika his son says, the pioneer sank into a coma with breathing problems after having been in the hospital for close to three weeks after he was diagnosed at the same facility with Tuberculosis but his family had taken him back home.
Maiyoro made history during the 1953 Ocean Games in Madagascar by starting his race a minute after the rest of the pack and remarkably beating everyone. He also holds the record of the first Kenyan to compete in an Olympic final when he qualified for the 5,000m final in Melbourne, Australia in 1956, where he was also the team captain.
Last week, the National Olympic Committee of Kenya and Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i offered to foot Mayolo’s medical bills which were totaling to Kshs80,000