Nyantika Maiyoro, a legendary Kenyan track and field athlete has died at the age of 88. He had been ailing for some time and was admitted at the Christamarianne Hospital in Kisii County, where he is said to have been diagnosed with Tuberculosis.
His son, Kennedy Nyantika, says that his father went into a coma on Sunday, February 24 after developing breathing problems.
Maiyoro was among Kenya’s first three competitors in athletics at the Olympics, a breakthrough achieved at the 1956 Games in Melbourne, where Kenya competed for the first time, as a British colony then.
In Melbourne, he featured in the 5,000 metres and finished an impressive seventh ,13 minutes, 53.25 seconds, with Kanuti Sum finishing 31st in the marathon (2:58:42) while Joseph Leresae was 18th in the high jump.
Maiyoro and Sum were joined at the 1960 Olympics in Rome by three other athletes; Seraphine Antao ,100 metres, 200 metres and 110 metres hurdles, Bartonjo Rotich ,400m, 400m hurdles, and Arere Anentia (10,000m) , before paving way for the Class of 64 at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo where Wilson Kiprugut bagged Kenya’s first ever Olympic medal, a bronze in the 800 metres.
Of the pioneer athletes from the 1956 Games, Maiyoro was the only one surviving before his death.