Athletics.

No one knows why so many of Kenya's best athletes - especially their world beating middle-distance runners - come from the Nandi, Kipsigis and Kisii tribes who all inhabit the western part of the country.

Stars as ,Kipchoge Keino, Ben Jipcho, Mike Boit, etc, are known to athletics fans the world over.Is it because the people of these tribes have longer legs or deeper chests or bigger hearts than other Kenyans? Or is it the fact that the boys - and girls - in this part of the country spend a good deal of their childhood running up and down the steep hillsides looking after the family livestock?

The fact remains that western Kenya has produced some of the world s greatest runners - and, living up to its reputation, recently produced another prodigy; a fourteen-year-old schoolgirl who looks certain to find her place among the all-time greats.

Today,I feature : Sabina Chebichi.

Chebichi was no one inside and outside her own home in Trans Nzoia,she was ever a shy, lanky schoolgirl until May 1973 when she entered into athletics meeting at Kericho.

Daughter of parents in humble circumstances, Sabina did not even possess the minimum athletics equipment - running clothes - and shoes -which many of her schoolfellows were competing in. Instead, she ran barefoot and wearing a bright green petticoat. But that made no difference to Sabrina s results. She ran the women s 800 metres in 2 min 16.8 sec, and the women;s 1500 metres in 4 mins 40 secs - times already within measurable distance of world records.

Sabina went on to become the first Kenyan female athlete to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games in 1974.