He left his fellow herdsmen and travelled over 400 kilometres to Eldoret with a dream – to run and earn money to buy land and settle away from cattle rustlers. And three years later, the soft-spoken Joseph Ebuya has already achieved his target.

A fortnight ago, Ebuya stunned the world when he led Kenyans in a 1-2-3 sweep of the BUPA Great Edinburgh International Cross Country IAAF Permit race, leaving the Ethiopian icon Kenenisa Bekele to settle for the fourth place. The runner from the cattle rustling-prone Baragoi village of Turkana North District braved the snow to romp to victory 36 seconds ahead of the six-time World Cross Country 12km champion.

It was the Bekele’s first cross country defeat since he dramatically dropped out of the 2007 World Cross in Mombasa, losing his global title to Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese. He had not lost a cross country race that he had finished since 2001. “I started running with little expectations. I never dreamt I could race against world beaters like Benjamin Limo, Eliud Kipchoge and Tadese, although my instincts kept telling me that I would step onto the world scene.