Kenyan runner Edwin Mokua escaped with four broken ribs and a double hand fracture from a hippopotamus attack that attacked him during training near the village of Manguo.
The 28-year-old winner of the February Trabzon Half Marathon is recovering from an injury and concussion at a hospital in Nyahurur. A training colleague saved him from major damage.
Local media reported that the incident took place earlier this week on the banks of the Ewaso Ng’iro River. Twenty-eight-year-old Mokua trained there in preparation for a weekend marathon in Izmir, Turkey, while encountering a herd of hippos and being attacked by an animal.
“I went around the animals, but I didn’t see Edwin when I looked back after a while,” Moku’s training partner Denis Kipkoskei told the Daily Nation.
Then, when he saw a colleague trying to escape, he rushed to his aid. “I scared the rest of the herd first before I focused on the animal that attacked him,” Kipkoskei added.
