How the ‘traumatic’ death of a fellow distance runner inspired Mary Ngugi to change women’s sport in Kenya

In the darkest moments of her toughest training sessions, professional marathon runner Mary Ngugi likes to lean on her trackside audience for motivation.

That’s not necessarily her coach – nor her training partners – but a much younger group of runners who have started frequenting Ngugi’s athletics track in the Kenyan town of Nyahururu.

After launching Nala Track Club several weeks ago, which she believes is the first all-girls athletics club in Kenya, Ngugi has found added fuel for her own training.

“[When] these girls are looking up at me, there’s no way I’m going to give up,” she tells CNN Sport. “It changes my outlook – I’m not just doing this for myself. I’m doing it for those girls looking at me.”

According to Ngugi, most of the girls recruited for Nala Track Club are juniors, still at primary school or high school but with the potential to become a top runner in the future.

The club finds schools for the girls to attend alongside their training, and – given many of the recruits come from underprivileged families – even helps to pay for school fees.

‘We can’t just wait for someone else to die’

Nala Track Club is the latest step in Ngugi’s quest to empower female athletes in Kenya and beyond, particularly following the death of compatriot and fellow distance runner Agnes Tirop.

The 25-year-old Tirop, a two-time world championship medalist and the women-only 10 km world record holder, was found dead with stab wounds in her home last year.

Her husband, Ibrahim Rotich, was charged with her murder several days later. He has since denied the charge, according to AFP. Court proceedings are ongoing.

Tirop’s death prompted a nationwide movement against gender-based violence in Kenya. For Ngugi, that meant launching the Women’s Athletic Alliance, a campaign that seeks to empower women through athletics and promote equality in the sport.

“It’s sad we had to experience such a traumatic thing for us to start the Women’s Athletics Alliance,” says Ngugi. “I was like … we have to do something. We can’t just sit down and wait for someone else to die.”