Stephen Kiprotich, a Ugandan runner, brought a gold medal to his country in the men’s marathon at the London Olympics this Sunday. His gold medal was the first one in Uganda since forty years ago and the second one in the country’s history. As the online edition of the New Vision, a Ugandan daily, published a report with pictures of Ugandan people rejoicing, the entire country welcomed the news with excitement.

Before the race, Kenyan and Ethiopian runners were expected to gain medals, and Kiprotich was not well-known. The world was surprised at the runner’s unexpected gold medal as he left others behind by picking up the pace in the last phase of the contest.

Uganda hosted Master Ryuho Okawa of Happy Science in June as he made a sermon at the national stadium in the capital city, Kampala. In the midst of media attention, a false report published by the BBC caused a controversy. According to the article, the stadium had double booked both the Happy Science event and the time trials for the Olympics. The article further stated that at least 5 athletes could have been selected for the Olympics if they had used the national stadium for their trials. But, the truth is that Happy Science made a contract with the stadium first, and later, the federation negotiated with the stadium so that it could use the venue for training, not for the Olympic trials.

Despite such noise, the event was a big success. Approximately ten thousand people joined Master Okawa’s lecture at the stadium although it was raining heavily. According to Happy Science, more than 7 million people in Uganda watched the sermon including the people that viewed the TV broadcast. In the lecture titled ‘’The Light of New Hope,” Master Okawa preached that “You can be the leader of the world in this century… You all can be happier and happier,” and predicted that the Ugandan people would witness the “miracles of happiness.”

The gold medal of the marathon athlete must be one of those “miracles of happiness” that should make the country happier and happier.