Crista Cullen, the hat-trick heroine of England's opening victory over Wales in the Commonwealth Games hockey on Tuesday, followed the winning start by accosting a member of the Kenyan rugby Sevens team to wish him happy birthday. She had inside information. She would. He is her brother.
It is one of the more extraordinary stories of the Games. Two siblings playing in different sports for different countries from different continents. Crista Cullen, age 25: defender and penalty corner specialist for the England women's hockey team, who breezed into the knockout stages today with a 3-0 win over Malaysia and will play either South Africa or Australia on Monday . Gray Cullen: her elder brother by 18 months, a former safari guide and a prop forward for the Kenyan rugby sevens squad, the first and only white player to represent the country at Sevens.
The story of how it came about is impossibly romantic, involving parents who met at a school dance in Africa at the age of 15, wild Kenyan childhoods, an English boarding school, a passion for action and a brother and sister who chose to settle in different countries to play their respective and most beloved sports.
"It's ironic, isn't it, that we should be here for different countries but it also seems to me completely natural," said Crista. "Gray loves Africa so much. Like me, he was raised there. He has safari-guided there. He loves animals, he loves the outdoors and now lives there again full-time. I am so proud of him to overcome all of his injuries and be here representing Kenya."
Crista's route was different. She was sent to Oakham School aged 12, and discovered hockey as an outlet for her enthusiasm, moving up through the ranks of England hockey to make her international debut as a 17-year-old in 2003. She competed as an Olympian in Beijing despite a serious wrist injury that ultimately required surgery and, typically, spent her rehabilitation driving with a friend down the east coast of Africa.
Their father, Garry Cullen, was a professional golfer who now runs the luxury resort Hemingways in Kenya and their mother is a former Kenyan squash international whose father, Eric Stephenson, was a boxer and a policeman, posted from England to Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s. "I think that might be where Gray gets his physique from. He's huge ... 6ft 3in, very stocky, very muscular," Crista says.
For Gray Cullen, the opportunity to play for Kenya was irresistible after injuries had interrupted a rugby career that included the Leicester Tigers academy, Loughborough University, Northampton and the England Under-18s. He had surgery to reconstruct his knee in August last year and so impressed the Kenyan rugby hierarchy since his return from injury that he was summoned last month to compete in the Commonwealth Games.
"This means a huge amount to me," said Gray, when he arrived in Delhi last Tuesday. "If I was going to call anywhere home, that would be Kenya. And if there was any sport I truly loved, that would be Sevens. I've always played a lot of 15s but I love the fast, all-round game that Sevens represents. Built as I am – I am definitely the heaviest on the Kenyan team, and I ought to be the strongest – I'm never going to be a flier down the wing but I hope I can make a general contribution. We're in the world's top 10. We're definitely in the hunt for a medal.
"I'm aware I'm the only white guy ever on the team but I can honestly say that I couldn't have been more welcomed, nor more supported. We've had some great social bonding experiences. I'm lucky I was brought up in Kenya. I understand the culture and the mentality, which helps enormously."
Their father, Garry, will be watching in Kenya. "They were inquisitive, naughty and took far too many chances," he says of his children. "But they stuck together like glue so that if one got bashed up the other could go get help or get it sorted.
"They were 100% encouraged to be adventurous but when they went too far or if there was a lot of blood, their mum freaked. Then I got it in the neck and duly passed it on down the line to the kids with accrued interest." He may be remembering the time Crista, aged five, and Gray, seven, capsized a dinghy out at sea and had to swim back for two hours to shore while their desperate father sent out all the local fishing boats as search parties.
Continuing a lifetime of mutual sibling support, they will follow each other's progress at the Games. The Kenyan sevens campaign begins on Monday with a match against Malaysia while Crista's team are among the favourites for a gold medal in Delhi. "I think what Crista has achieved is fantastic," Gray says. "I am so chuffed to see my little sister's team winning all these medals. I'm really proud of her. The rest of the family will just have to try to live in her shadows."
