Ageless ‘Chemo’ says current hockey players lack passion for the game

Hellen Chemtai controls the ball during a past National Women league match against Vikings at City Park Stadium. PHOTO | MARTIN MUKANGU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The 44-year-old former Kenyan sprinter and international hockey player has had a golden career spurning two decades.
  • Chemtai, who was raised in Maringo in Nairobi, performed exceptionally well in both sports. She was a star at Pangani Girls in 1988, where she represented the school in athletics, hockey, volleyball and netball.
  • She advanced her hockey career at Inter-Capitale Club between 1989 and 1999, then joined Blue Eaglets (2002-2012) before she later joined Telkom, where she won three league titles as well as two continental club titles.

The game of hockey is one of the few sports where someone can play at the highest level past their 40s.

Do not, however, be fooled that it is easy.

It entails a high level of discipline, commitment and a lot of sacrifice. It’s along these lines that I was particularly interested in one Hellen “Chemo” Chemtai.

The 44-year-old former Kenyan sprinter and international hockey player has had a golden career spurning two decades.

Chemtai, who was raised in Maringo in Nairobi, performed exceptionally well in both sports. She was a star at Pangani Girls in 1988, where she represented the school in athletics, hockey, volleyball and netball.

She advanced her hockey career at Inter-Capitale Club between 1989 and 1999, then joined Blue Eaglets (2002-2012) before she later joined Telkom, where she won three league titles as well as two continental club titles.

Hellen Chemtai sprints away in celebration after scoring for Telkom Orange in the National Hockey League as Kenyatta University players protest in May, 2015, at the City Park Hockey Stadium. Orange won the match 6-0. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

She last featured for Telkom in the 2016 season. While playing for the national team, Chemtai amassed 50 caps and scored 20 goals.

As a sprinter, she represented Kenya in the 100, 200 and 400 metres, alongside the long jump and triple jump.

Her personal best times are 11.5 seconds in the 100m, 23.7 seconds in the 200m, and 53.8 seconds in the 400m.

Chemtai also managed 6.0 metres in the long jump and 12.32m in the triple jump.

She was also the national 100m and 200m champion for six consecutive years.

How come you’re not playing this season, did you hang your boots?

“No way, I have not quit hockey. I have just taken a break as I try to juggle in between work and also motherly duties. I hope to be back on the pitch sooner and running these young ones rugged,” she says.

Hellen Chemtai makes a point during the interview at City Park Stadium on November 27, 2017. PHOTO | MARTIN MUKANGU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

“Chemo”, as she is fondly referred to, is popular at City Park Hockey Stadium, and our interview is constantly interrupted as she greets one player after the other.

Mind you, a number of them were not even born when she started playing hockey.

Her face becomes awash with emotion when talking about hockey, especially her first club Inter-Capitale which she joined while still a student at Pangani Girls in 1989.

“I miss Inter. We were like a family. We had a father (the late Tobias Oduor) and we were all like sisters,” she recalls with a forlorn nostalgic look.

Inter-Capitale were the ultimate

Inter-Capitale, or “Inter” as they were popularly known, were the pioneer women’s hockey club in the 80s when Oduor was at the helm. Then came Sliders, Postbank and Barclays. But Inter-Capitale were the ultimate.

Girls who had retire their sticks came out in droves.

Many alumna of such schools as Kenya High, Pangani Girls and Jamhuri High found reason to play again.

Chemtai, and other youthful players, presented the faces of the future.

Hellen Chemtai in action against Namibia during the 2008 Olympic qualifiers at the City Park Hockey Stadium in Nairobi. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Inter-Capitale came to be disbanded later after they failed to take part in an African Club Championship.

Though they were only banned for a year, the players’ passion for the game could not let themselves sit out for a year.

But her life in hockey has not been all smooth sailing.

Starting on a high note, without having to go through tedious training and trials to get a place in the national team, her best year was in 1992 when she captained the junior national team to the World Cup in Spain.

The media described her as a lethal weapon, her athleticism, unmistakably Kenyan, was a spectacle to watch at the junior event.

At only 20 years of age, and with the high level of play she displayed at City Park, the future of women’s hockey was in no doubt as a disciplined Kenya would excel.

“We beat Zimbabwe and Namibia at City Park. It was just amazing, people thought we could not do it, but we did,” says Chemtai.

She was the top scorer and the best player of the tournament. In Spain, they finished 10th out of the 14 teams, among them top nations like Spain and France.

It is in the same year that she was nominated for the Sportswoman of the Year award.

However, the then 10,000 metres star, Sally Barsosio, was at her best and Chemtai was more than happy to finish second to her.

“My first love was hockey, athletics a definite second,” she says.

Hellen Chemtai makes a point during the interview at City Park Stadium on November 27, 2017. PHOTO | MARTIN MUKANGU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Chemtai only took up athletics seriously when she was working for Kenya Railways, where she took part in their in-house competitions.

But in 1992, she gave it a shot at the national trials and she qualified for the 1993 All-Africa Championships in Durban, South Africa, where she discovered her talent in the short distance races after reaching the semi-finals of the 100 and 200 metres.

Developing the women’s game

“I decided to give it more attention,” she says. But she was to be out in 1994, 1995 and part of 1996 when she gave birth to her two sons, Weber Otieno and Douglas Nyerere.

The women’s game then was then managed by the Kenya Ladies Hockey Association (KLHA) chaired by Oduor with June Moi as patron.

He and June founded the KLHA with an eye to developing the women’s game because they felt the Kenya Hockey Union was not paying it proper attention. The 1998 Africa Hockey Championships in Zimbabwe was particularly special for Chemtai.

“I was voted the Most Valuable Player. It caught me completely off guard, I thought, why me? The South Africans were there and according to me they were really good, no one could beat them,” she says.

Kenya had a good outing in Zimbabwe where they won the silver behind South Africa.

But this was a trip that was going to spark off one of the greatest rows of all time in the hockey fraternity. The row that finally led to the disbandment of KLHA.

Despite their excellent performance in Zimbabwe, it was a dissatisfying trip for the ladies. “We were treated badly, we were broke, we had no allowances and the food was pathetic. Some of us were starving,” recalls Chemtai, who skippered the side.

Hellen Chemtai makes a point during the interview at City Park Stadium on November 27, 2017. PHOTO | MARTIN MUKANGU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

But what angered the captain is the way the officials handled the team to the point of being stranded at the airport in Harare because they could not raise the airport tax.

“To me this was utter mistreatment. Five of us did not have money to pay for airport tax. We were going to be stranded were it not for a fellow player who bailed us out,” said Chemtai.

On her return, she decided to air her dissatisfaction as a captain to the Kenya Hockey Union, then the umbrella body.

Nevertheless, she was handed a one-year ban.

Kicked out of best sport

“I was down, I was being kicked out of my best sport. But I did not think much about it, at least I had another alternative for that year,” she says.

For consolation, she turned to athletics and took part in the African Championship later that year. She made a comeback to hockey during the 1999 All Africa Games in South Africa after her ban was lifted
After a disappointing experience in South Africa, Chemtai turned to athletics full time. She started taking part in national championships but her sights were set on the Abuja 2003 All Africa Games.

More drama was to follow her on the track.

“I started my training in September 2002 and planned a whole year of training. I qualified for three events. I clocked 11.8 in the 100 metres, the qualifying time was 12.5 and ran 24 seconds in 200 metres whose qualifying time was 24.4 seconds,” says Chemtai.

Sprinter Hellen Chemtai (right) leads the 200 metres field during a past Athletics Kenya track and field meeting in Thika.

She also qualified for long jump after she jumped six metres. She left the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani a happy soul. A whole year in training had paid off.

But her happiness was short-lived as Athletics Kenya scrapped the sprints from their Abuja programme.

“It was another trying moment for me. My coach (John Anzrah) and I were devastated, we had wasted a whole year. I just stayed in the house, feeding on junk and crying myself to sleep,” she says.

It took the intervention of the then Sports Minister Najib Balala after an outcry from the media to have sprinters reinstated in the team the night before the Kenyan delegation left for Abuja. But despite having finally made the trip, it did not make things any better for Chemtai.

“In Abuja things got even worse, the coaches did not know me, I had not trained under them. They were looking at me, wondering what to do with me. AK sent me an ill-fitting kit and I ended up borrowing, but I managed to run my personal best of 11.7 in the 100 metres,” she says.

In honor of her friend

The event was won by a Nigerian with a time of 11.3, while she was knocked out of the long jump in the semi-finals. She did not take part in the 200 metres.

She made a return to the hockey and travelled with the team for the Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad, India, and was voted the Most Valuable Player. 

In 2014, Chemtai joined Telkom in honour of her friend and international teammate Betty Tioni, who died on February 13 that year after a short illness at a Nakuru hospital.

“She (Tioni) always wanted me to join her at Telkom while I played at Blue Eaglets and I decided to join the club in her honour,” she recalls. It was the second tragedy in her life, after losing her husband, three years earlier.

She was in imperious from at Telkom helping the team win both the league and continental club title in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe that same year.

She was the top scorer in the continental event with seven goals as the team won its seventh continental title.

She was again in top form in 2015 and 2016 as Telkom retained both the national and continental titles to underline their dominance.

Alongside Terry Juma and Jackline Mwangi, who were also in their 40s, she was getting better like good old wine.

The mother of four currently works at the Railways Training Institute but never misses matches at City Park.

She has a bone to pick with the current generation of players whom she says lack the passion for the sport.

“Today, players do not feel the value of playing for the national team, they show no respect to the coaches and think they have made it. They need to change their attitude or else the sport will go down the drain, She notes with concern.

Her first born, Douglas, has taken up the sport and currently plays for Premier League side Chase Sailors.

“I am his number one fan and I hope he will become even better than me in the sport,” she says.