Long before Leander Paes led the Indian contingent at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games, another athlete of Goan origin had led his adopted country holding that nation’s flag in his hands.
It was the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. The Kenyan contingent had their best medal hope in athletics as flag bearer – Seraphino Antao. Two years earlier he had won the gold in the 100 yards and 220 yards at the Perth Commonwealth Games.
But in 1964 Olympics he took ill and didn’t do anywhere as well as expected. He reached the second round in the 200 metres and was eliminated in the first round in the 100 metres. This Kenyan athlete’s Olympic dream had ended, and with it the dream of an athlete of Goan origin winning an athletics Olympic gold remains unfulfilled.
Kenya gained its independence from Britain in 1963 and in its first Olympic Games after that, the fledgling nation’s flag bearer was this athlete of Goan origin Antao, nicknamed the Gazelle for his running prowess.
He was the first Kenyan athlete to win a gold medal at an international event. His best Olympic finish was at the 1960 Rome Olympics when he reached the semifinals of the 100 metres and the second round of the 200 metres.
He later moved to London and lived there. He died in the UK in September 2011.
Antao was not the only person of Goan origin to represent Kenya in the Olympics. There have been a number of hockey players who played for the Kenyan team in various editions of the Games. These include Reynold Pereira, Slivester Fernandes, Aloysius Mendonca, Leo Fernandes, Hilary Fernandes, Anthony Vaz, Edgar Fernandes, Edgbert Fernandes, Saude George, Rosario Dalgado, Michael Pereira, Reynolds Pereira, Philip D’Souza, Patrick Martins and Raphael Fernandes.
