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Indeed desperate times call for desperate measures. As the Covid-19 pandemic continue to paralyse sports activities and other sectors across the globe, some athletes and coaches have shifted from the norm to other gainful activities.

Some have ventured into agricultural activities as a stop-gap measure to get daily bread as scientists and health experts burn the midnight oil to get a vaccine for the scourge.

So to marathoner John Lang’at. He is one of the athletes who have switched to farming at least for now as the countries intensified the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

He has since retreated   to his rural home at Sotit Kapande village in Konoin Constituency, Bomet County where he is now tending to his tea bushes besides focusing on dairy farming.

So athletics coaches such as Paul Kemei of Lemotit Athletics Training camp in Kericho have also ventured into farming.

Lang’at avers that he decided to engage in the farming activities in a bid to get means of livelihood after athletics which has been his main source of livelihood having been disrupted by the scourge.

“We’re going through hard times due to the Covid-19 and one has to think outside the box in order to survive.

So have I resolved to engage in farming so as to support my family by putting food on the table at least for now,” Lang’at says

Even as he expresses hope the scourge will be crushed soon, Lang’at says indeed things are not a walk in the park and therefore, he has to devise ways of survival to avoid going to bed on an empty stomach.

“So currently I am busy on my tea farm as I also keep dairy cows because there’s nothing we do as far as athletics are concern,” he adds.

He advises his fellow athletes to do likewise and not to lose hope but remain focus on their careers as the world battles to stop completely the spread of the virus in a bid for normalcy to resumes.

Lang’at is one of the prominent athletes in Kenya who has shone in a number of races flying high the country’s flag in global meetings.

He was just preparing to participate in the Rotterdam Marathon that would have been held on May 5 when all sporting activities were either suspended indefinitely or pushed forward in a bid to stop the spread of Corona Virus.