Four athletes who flew back home from India where they had been stranded for months due to coronavirus outbreak have been put under mandatory quarantine.
The runners, Millicent Gathoni, Michael Kipyego, Isaac Kipkemoi and Benjamin Kipkasi will spend the next 14 days starting from last Saturday at a government quarantine centre.
“I’m happy I’m back home. It is much better than being held in a foreign country where we were stranded. It was a very lonely experience,” said Gathoni in a telephone interview with Nation Sport from St Georges Secondary School quarantine centre in Nairobi.
The four runners are among 14 people in quarantine at the centre. They all arrived from India on Friday morning.
The air fare for the four from Bangalore to Mumbai (Sh15,000 per person) and from Mumbai to Nairobi (Sh71,900 per person) was paid by Athletics Kenya.
Gathoni narrated how they survived on rice and ugali for the days they were in India. One kilogramme of ugali flour cost them Sh73.
COOKED OWN MEALS
“We rented rooms and cooked our own meals because we could not afford to stay in hotel,” Gathoni said.
Gathoni who hails from Nyahururu arrived in India in February and was set to participate in four races. However, the Covid-19 outbreak saw athletics activities cancelled as the country went under lockdown.
“I had competed in two of the races including the Guwati Half marathon road race where I finished second,” she added.
Kipyego said there were other Kenyans runners who are still stranded in India. Gathoni said she missed home and her family in Nyahururu adding, “I’m happy am finally back home.”
AK president, Jack Tuwei said there are still seven more runners held in India.
“We have made plans to bring them back home as there is another flight expected to leave India for Kenya in the coming days,” Tuwei said.
Kenya’s High Commissioner in India, Willy Bett has urged any Kenyan who wants to be evacuated from India to register with the embassy.
