Kenya's Olympic 800 meters champion and IAAF Golden Jackpot winner Pamela Jelimo is expected back in the country this week.
Her villagers, friends and the government have lined up elaborate plans to give the 18-year-old teenage sensation a rousing welcome when Jelimo arrives home.
The teenage sensation who became the first Kenyan to win the 1 million U.S. dollars Golden jackpot in Brussels two weeks ago concluded her season over the weekend when she competed at the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart of Germany on Sunday.
In addition to winning in all six Golden League meets, successful claimants of the 1 million dollar cash prize must compete at the World Athletics Final to be eligible for their share of the Jackpot.
And Jelimo added another 30,000 dollars to her bulging bank account with a win at the World Athletics final in Stuttgart on Sunday.
The 18-year-old, who only started running the distance this year, was the only competitor in any discipline to win her event at each one of the League's six meetings.
She had to be in Stuttgart to officially receive the cheque and while she was at it, she won some 30,000 dollars with her 12th victory in as many finals this season.
Janeth Jepkosgei edged Britain's Marilyn Okoro for second place, as Jelimo left the pair in her wake in the final straight
The Kapsabet Express, as Jelimo is known locally, did not return home after Beijing Olympics, since she had to complete her AF Golden League challenge series where she scooped the 1 million dollar jackpot.
Her local agent, Barnabas Korir said that plans for a feast in her village in Kapsabet were almost complete and a program for her welcome ceremony would be released later on Monday.
"The government is keen to give her a heroic reception and consultations with her family that wishes all festivities to be held in Kapsabet are going on," Korir said.
He added that the relatively unknown athlete, who has scaled to the pinnacle of women's 800m running, was exhausted after her grueling campaign and needed much rest.
"After what the athlete has done for her country, Kenyans would wish to celebrate her achievements and all is being done to ensure that she is not worn out by the festivities."
Jelimo became the first Kenyan woman to win an Olympic gold medal when she ran 1:54.87 to blow away the field in Beijing and set the World Junior record of 1:54.01.
The time, the third fastest of all, was set at the Zurich Golden League meeting two weeks later.
Jelimo clinched the jackpot after winning in Berlin, Oslo, Rome, Paris, Zurich and Brussels in a remarkable season.
Unbeaten over the distance she first lined up for the two lap race at the national trials for African Championships in April, Jelimo has simply been dominated the race in a way never seen before.
She won the continental title in Addis Ababa, setting a stadium record of 1:58.70 to beat Maria Mutola and a week later she clocked1:55.76 run in Hengelo.
She made her Golden League debut in the German capital Berlin where she dipped under 1:55 minutes for the first time in what was apparently just her fifth outing over the distance, clocking 1:54.99 minutes to supplant Mutola as the African record holder.
Winning by nearly four full seconds, she immediately planted herself firmly as a Jackpot contender.
Oslo was next, and with a 1:55.41 performance with a victory margin of more than three-and-a-half seconds. Again she humbled the field, leaving world champion Jepkosgei a distant fifth.
She returned home to dominate at the Kenyan Olympic Trials, though her outing in Nairobi did nothing to dent her international momentum.
When the Jackpot chase resumed in Rome, she again was without peer, producing a 1:55.69 victory.
By then, virtually all the leading 800m runners in the world had already resigned themselves to the fact that the super-teen was untouchable.
For those who didn't subscribe to that notion, Jelimo stamped her authority the following weekend in Paris.
At the Stade de France, she again lowered her world junior and continental record with a 1:54.97 run, again winning by more than three-and-a-half-seconds.
Her unlikely rise continued in Beijing with a gold-medal winning performance of 1:54.87, another world junior and African record.
Post Olympics, Jelimo set another world junior best and African record running a stunning 1:54.01 in Zurich elevating her to the No. 3 position all-time.
Source: Xinhua
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