Kenya is famous for many things; abundant natural wildlife, exciting paleontological finds, America’s president Obama was born to a Kenyan father, and in sports, Kenya is also known for its record setting long distance runners.
As a matter of fact, Kenyan athletes put the “M” in marathon.
Well if record setting is your thing, Kenya is the place to find it, as Kenyan rugby star, Collins Injera, now holds the all-time world record for the number of tries (235 in all) scored on the International Rugby Board’s (IRB) Sevens World Series circuit. No stranger to records, Injera was the top try scorer when Kenya reached the semi-finals of the 2008-09 IRB World Series.
Born in 1986, Injera started his rugby career playing for his high school team. He went on to play for the Kenyan military team and later Mwamba RFC in Nairobi. He became a member of the Kenyan rugby team in 2006 when he featured in the Dubai Rugby Sevens. He is now an important player for the Kenyan Sevens squad. Injera has also made appearances for the Kenyan national rugby union team.
In 2009 Injera beat other nominees to win Kenyan sports man of the year. He is a recipient of the Kenyan presidential Order of the Golden Warriors. Rugby is by no means the biggest sport in Kenya and the rest of Africa but Injera, whose parents are perhaps his biggest fans, enjoys the support of his family. He credits his older brother, who captains the Kenyan Sevens squad as his biggest encouragement.
All that love and support has helped to keep Injera grounded and keep a level head. He has even managed to earn a degree in mass communication in middle of all the shoving and pushing that comes with the scrum.
Injera has had his difficult moments too, in 2013 he missed out on a number of training sessions with the Kenyan national team due to a conflict between the national team and his club, Mwamba FC, which constituted a breach of contract and he was dropped from the national team.
Looking beyond his record setting exploits, Injera has his sights set on the Rio Olympics games later in June this year, where the Kenyan national team is expected to put up a decent appearance. Injera and his team mates may just go ahead and add a rugby medal to Kenya’s already impressive Olympic medal haul from the long distance events.
