"Why aren't you running?"

Kenya is well-known for her athletics champions but I bet you don't know about this particularly bizarre story from Kenya's athletics history. In 1953, Nyandika Maiyoro was at the Indian Ocean Games which were held in Madagascar. He had no problem understanding Swahili and his mother-tongue Kisii but he could not understand English. A colonial administrator was at hand to translate the instructions to him.

A couple of minutes before the race was to start, the colonial administrator had to go to the little boys' room. When he came back from answering nature's call, he found out that the race had already begun but Nyandika was not among the runners. When he finally found him he yelled at him in Swahili, asking: "Nyandika! Why aren't you running? This is your race!"

Nyandika quickly ran to the start line and begun the race. By this time, the other athletes had already done one lap, meaning that Nyandika was one hundred metres behind the rest.

But he caught up with them...and won!