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Fresh scandal rocks Olympic team as medal hopeful is stranded at airport


Kenya’s main hope for gold in the men’s marathon at the Rio Olympics was reportedly stranded at the Galeao International Airport in Brazil on Tuesday night.

This is after no official from the Kenyan camp offered to pick him up at the airport..

Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper reports that Eliud Kipchoge was later forced to request for a ride from Ugandan marathoner Stephen Kiprotich, who is his personal friend.

SURE BET

Kipchoge is among the latest arrival to the Olympics games and is considered a sure bet to earn Kenya a podium finish in the men’s marathon.

“Embarrassingly,” the Monitor reports, “Kipchoge had no one from the Kenyan camp to pick him at Galaeao, so he hiked a lift in Kiprotich’s car to the Olympic Village.”

Kipchoge and Kiprotich will face off in the men’s marathon slated for Sunday morning.

The Kenyan has posted some the best timings over the discipline this year and is seeking to dethrone his Ugandan colleague of the Olympic title.

LITANY OF EMBARRASSMENTS

Aside from Kipchoge’s fiasco, team Kenya’s senior officials in Brazil including Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario and chief de mission Stephen Soi are facing increased scrutiny over the litany of embarrassments and scandals associated with Kenya at the games in Rio.

These includes travel hitches involving senior athletes and their coaches, a lack of adequate training and rest kits despite adequate provision from sponsors, delays in payment of allowances and ferrying of a bloated squad of joyriders which reportedly includes mistresses.