Kenyan security guard Michael Douglas Ongeri has a dream — and will not be daunted by poverty, a 13-hour workday or training in Qatar’s searing heat, far from his family.
Nor will he let the 11km he has to walk from work to the track then back home slow him down.
“You get used to it,” Ongeri said matter-of-factly. “I have to do it, it is something which is me, I like running, I have to run.”
While many dream of becoming an international track star, the 22-year-old Kenyan might actually have a chance.
Six days per week, he leaves work at about 5pm and heads to Doha’s biggest park, Aspire Park, in the shadow of the city’s Khalifa International Stadium that is to host the IAAF World Athletics Championship in 2019.
In temperatures greater than 40°C and stifling humidity, the Kenyan puts on his training gear and, sweat pouring, runs up to 12km through Aspire’s green expanses.
If it is close to his payday — 1,400 Qatari riyals (US$384.57) per month — it is possible Ongeri will go without food as he has no cash left, sleep for five hours in a room he shares with five others and then start all over again.
“He is talented and I think he could achieve his dream as a 1,500m/5,000m runner,” said former athlete Liz McColgan, who with her husband, John Nuttall, founded and runs the Doha Athletics Club (DAC).
The couple help Ongeri train twice per week.
A former 10,000m world champion, silver medalist at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and winner of the New York and London marathons, whose husband competed in the 1996 Olympics and whose daughter just ran in the 5,000m final in Rio, McColgan’s opinion carries weight.
“He has a really good running style, so I could see him being a better track runner,” said McColgan, who has has been based in Qatar for the past two-and-a-half years.
“I met Michael when he sent me an e-mail to the DAC Web site, but I had seen him training alone at the park where we train, as it was unusual to see someone running so fast on his own,” McColgan said.
On the night reporters watched him train, Ongeri was surrounded by younger members of the club as Nuttall barked out instructions.
“Come on Michael! Stop being so lazy!” he joked as the security guard sped at a pace that marks him out from the other runners.
“Madame Liz,” as Ongeri calls McColgan, worries that any hopes he has of competing professionally could be scuppered by his lack of time to train.
“Unfortunately, he works ridiculous hours, so can only run once a day,” she said. “If he wanted to race internationally you need twice a day.”
Ongeri grew up poor in Kenya’s Nyanza Province and always loved running. However, as the oldest son of five siblings, his duty was to his family, not his passion.
“My background wasn’t good, I faced hardship. I had to feed my family,” he said.
He ended up working on the same farm as his father and mother, but word of a job in Qatar offered a chance to earn more money and to run as well.
To secure his passage to the Persian Gulf he paid an agent about US$1,000 — cash he did not have, but borrowed from an Italian boss at a shop where he worked in Kenya.
Three years on and he has just repaid the loan, and with the cash he sends to his family, Ongeri survives in Doha on about US$100 each month.
“Of course, now everybody [back home] is looking at me — ‘Please, I need this. Please I need that.’ It’s difficult, Doha is a very expensive place,” he said.
After the temperature finally dips below 40°C, Ongeri had an hour’s running behind him and a 3km walk home ahead.
It might be a short distance from Aspire Park to the stadium, but it would represent a lifetime’s ambition if Ongeri one day ends up running there.
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