Street in Kenya named after coach Br.Colm O'Connell

As many of you may know, Brother Colm O'Connell is a coach in Iten, Kenya and coached David Rudisha to a world record and an Olympic Gold medal in the 800m at the 2012 London Olympics.

At a recent ceremony in Kenya, a street in Kenya was named after the Mallow man.

Story HERE

Fire at St.Patrick's in Iten, Kenya

Many of you will be aware of Brother Colm O'Connell from Mallow and how he coached the top 800m world record holder David Rudisha. The school where he teaches suffered a major fire today.

Although it may not be related, Kenya is suffering a spate of arson attacks at schools at present.

"St. Patrick's fire, unconfirmed report - No casualties. One dormitory burned down."

St: Patrick's High School Iten dormitory on fire!!! Whats wrong with our schools? Something need to be done. pic.twitter.com/tXtpuskYoF

— David Rudisha MBS (@rudishadavid) July 26, 2016

Man on a Mission...Video about the famous Iten training camp in Kenya

Back in January, I had a post up about Irishman Brother Colm O'Connell in Kenya with links to some newspaper articles. He is famous worldwide for training some of the best athletes in the world at the famous Iten training camp in the highlands of Kenya.

This video (approx 55 mins long) shows Eamonn Coghlan at the camp, looking at how the athletes there train and finding out what is the key to their success.

Elite training in Kenya...

These are two online newspaper articles that I came across recently...

In the first article, the Independent looks at Brother Colm O'Connell who is a 63-year-old Irish missionary and retired teacher. When he arrived in Kenya in 1976, he was a geography teacher and got involved later in the athletics training programme. After a short period, he took over and  ended up training some of the best distance athletes in the world. Despite that, he seldom leaves Iten in Kenya and has been present to see any of his athletes win a major championship gold medal in either the Olympic Games or World Championships. Article HERE

Update...(Telegraph version HERE)

In the second article, The Telegraph looks at Britain's Mo Farah and his high altitude training in Iten, Kenya. While he might be more used to the facilities in Oregon as part of the Nike Project, things in Kenya are a bit more basic with hazards with donkeys on the track!  “There were donkeys all over the place,” he said. “I tried to shout something to scare them off but they just stood there exactly in lane one. I had to go on a different part of the track.” The article is HERE