Brother learned athletics the fast way

He arrived in East Africa in 1976 with scant interest in athletics, but 36 years later, this Corkman, a Christian Brother teacher, is considered the foremost athletics coach in Kenya, and one of the most regarded in the world.

Under his tutelage, Brother Colm O’Connell’s protégés have garnered nine Olympic medals, five of them gold, and 25 World Championship medals. This Olympics, he is training David Rudisha, the 800 metres world record holder, who also has the three fastest world times this year. Much is expected of Rudisha in London.

Br O’Connell also has eight other runners from his acclaimed youth programme running at London 2012, including Hilda Kibet, who is running for The Netherlands, and Kenyan Edna Kiplagat, who holds a world marathon title. It’s some feat for a geography teacher who was thrown in at the deep end when he arrived in the Rift Valley.