Dr Rajwinder Singh Jutley, BMedSci (Hon), MB ChB, DM, FCS ECSA, FRCS Eng, FRCS…
The academic qualifications certainly offer a clue to his professional achievements, but belie Dr Jutley’s enviable global reputation in medicine and sports.
It’s only when you interact with him that you appreciate the fact that Dr Jutley is truly one of Kenya’s most unsung heroes—the usual, unfortunate, tale of extraordinary individuals celebrated abroad but seldom recognised or appreciated in their backyards.
But that doesn’t seem to bother or deter Dr Jutley, one of the world’s leading cardiac surgeons and a great lover of motorsports.
Born in Kenya and penduluming his medical practice between Nairobi and the United Kingdom, 52-year-old Jutley is celebrated as a leader in sport medicine, performance and safety solutions.
This weekend, some of the world’s leading sportspersons in action will have interacted with Dr Jutley’s professional performance solutions at one point.
Briton Eilish McColgan, the 10,000 metres Commonwealth champion; Toyota Gazoo Racing Team’s rally drivers Elfyn Evans, Kalle Rovanpera and Katsuta Takamoto; and Belgium’s Tour de France cycling team Lotto Soudal Dstny are all beneficiaries of Dr Jutley’s hydration solution – Precision Hydration.
“Precision Hydration provides athletes with a customised, bespoke and physiologically balanced hydration solution depending on their sweat analysis while considering their race and environment conditions,” says Dr Jutley, who is also the chief medical officer at the World Rally Championship Safari Rally.
Precision Hydration was born in 2009, somewhat by default.
“I was reviewing the second edition of my motorsport book, Motorsport Fitness Manual, aimed to assist competitors on driver preparation and emergency medical care,” Dr Jutley recalls.
He then looked at the section on hydration critically, especially with emerging evidence that there was a massive variation in sweat sodium losses in athletes and “inappropriate replacement can lead to cramping, fatigue, impaired performance, confusion and even death.”
“My invited co-author, Andy Blow, a sub-10-hour Iron Man finisher, was a typical sufferer with debilitating cramping, especially in hot races with high sweat losses. So, we set about thinking how to test sweat and replace losses precisely,” he says.
“Literally at 3am while waiting for an emergency case to arrive, I had an ‘Eureka’ moment. I stumbled upon technology released in the 1980’s which tests sweat without having to exercise.”
The doctor adds that they signed up with the US-based manufacturer, and did a bunch of testing on athletes at the Porsche Human Performance Centre, where he was the medical consultant.
Dr Raj Jutley takes a break at the Transfagarasan Highway, Romania’s most spectacular and best-known road, in 2022.
“Their results of adjusting their fluid content according to their sweat test was too good to ignore,” he says.
Dr Jutley and company realised that after adjusting the contents of their fluid intake, the athletes and drivers were suddenly reporting better times, with no cramping and enhanced performance. “So, in 2010, Andy and I proceeded to lodge a patent initially in the US to protect the intellectual property. We founded Precision Hydration, which, in the last two years, has developed to Precision Fuel and Hydration as we diversified into precision energy fuelling,” he says.
Precision Hydration is headquartered in Christchurch, England, but present on five continents and in 23 countries, including Kenya, with over 65 sweat test centres with manufacturing and warehousing in USA, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Canada and the UK. “This year and 2022, we are backing the PTO (Professional Triathlon Organisation) World Series,” says Dr Jutley in an interview with the Sunday Nation.
In 2010, while developing the product, Dr Jutley undertook athlete testing at the Porsche Human Performance Centre heat chamber at Silverstone, UK.
“The replacement of appropriate electrolytes clearly showed a performance enhancement both mentally and physically.
“In some cases, performance increase compared to water alone was almost 20 per cent, especially if you were a high salt sweater,” he says.
“This was noticed by some high-level sports institutes in the UK, and we kicked off with testing and prescribing products to some serious players such the England Rugby National team, RedBull F1 driver Mark Webber amongst our first few.”
Precision Hydration products are independently batch tested for a wide range of prohibited substances by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and have been certified as compliant.
The client list is enviable. “Starting with the most recent, we signed up earlier this year with the famous Belgian Lotto Soudal Dstny cycling team as official partners. Watch out for our bottles during the Tour de France!
“Examples of other team users are England Rugby, Ireland Rugby, Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United in the UK. Our US market is the largest with high profile teams in America’s National Basketball Association, National Football League and Major League Baseball. These include Orlando Magic, Minnesota Twins, Green Bay Backers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Astros, Miami Dolphins amongst many others.”
Dr Raj Jutley’s Peugeot 205 1.9 GTI in which he competed in the 1998, 1999 and 2001 Safari Rally rounds of the World Rally Championship.
Dr Jutley personally tested Toyota Gazoo World Rally Championship team drivers Evans, Takamoto and Rovanpera in Belgium last year ahead of the event.
The trio are this weekend competing in the Croatia round of the World Rally Championship and will be in Kenya from June 22 to 25 for the WRC Safari Rally where Dr Jutley will be the chief medic. “We also have a handful of motorsport ambassadors such as Britain’s Eugene Laverty, the World Superbike Championship rider and Mark Higgins, the UK and USA Rally champion who we work with,” he says.
Scotswoman McColgan broke Kenyan hearts when she won the Commonwealth Games 10,000 metres gold in Birmingham last year, outwitting Kenya’s former world cross country champion Irene Cheptai.
For a long time, McColgan had contracted Precision Hydration for her hydration solutions.
“It was UK founder Andy who introduced me to Precision Hydration a few years ago. But sadly, my contract has ended now,” McColgan, who floored Cheptai in the final lap in Birmingham, told the Sunday Nation in a chat this week.
Dr Jutley says: “While I was proud of this moment (McColgan’s win in Birmingham) as the co-founder of Precision Fuel and Hydration, I was equally confused that, as a Kenyan, I had a part to play in this. But there’s a silver lining here… imagine what I could do with the Kenyans.”
He has a bitter-sweet feeling about Kenya’s sporting potential given what science has to offer in performance enhancement.
For Dr Jutley, working with Kenyan sportspeople is something he and his colleagues are keen to do but have been facing challenges on how to enter the space.
“I am confident that with the right optimisation, I can lead the Kenyans to consistently beat the 2:00:00 mark in the marathon,” he says. “And this is not an ill-thrown remark but rather based on what we’ve done with athletes globally.”
He says he would be willing to work with the Sports ministry and other stakeholders. “Sadly, our medal tally has declined over the last few years and for too long we’ve been running ‘on our genetics’ failing to see that the rest of the world is catching up quickly.”
Dr Jutley had, meanwhile, entered early talks with a water bottler about manufacturing a sports drink in Kenya that would be WADA-approved and the drink of choice for the region.
“The conversation ceased as Covid-19 hit, but again something that is so easy to do and with such good results.”
Biker
Besides his medical practice, Dr Jutley is also an avid biker who has straddled the world on his, mainly, Honda, KTM and BMW bikes. “I have been riding on and off for 15 years but mostly commuting. When I turned 50, I decided to take a break from the hassles of Nairobi and ride the world alone on motorbikes I had admired in my youth – a 2003 Africa Twin RD07A and 2002 KTM640.”
Dr Jutley’s rides are in two to three-week spurts covering 2,000 to 3,000 kilometres and his mission is to eventually complete a round-the-world ride in three years. “In between, I come home to spend 100 per cent unadulterated quality time with my family so the balance is just right.”
Dr Jutley has so far completed 20,000km across 23 countries, a feat he describes as “the most therapeutic and humbling experience”.
“I had lost my trust in humanity and community, but some experiences in the remotest parts of the world have taught me that kindness, generosity, non-judgmental behaviour and simplicity still exist,” he explains.
World Rally Championship Safari Rally Chief Medical Officer, Dr Raj Jutley (left) explains a point to then Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed (in yellow scarf) during a safety and medical evacuation simulation exercise held at the Kenya Wildlife Research and Training Institute in Naivasha on January 13, 2021.
His “hands down” and most memorable ride is on the Transfagarasan highway in the southern Carpathian Mountains of Romania deep in Dracula country. According to celebrated British motoring critic Jeremy Clarkson, the Transfagarasan highway is “the best driving road in the world.”
“And I agree,” quips Dr Jutley.
“Open only in the summer months and during daylight, this 90km road has 80 hairpin curves, five tunnels and over 500 small bridges. And what made it even special was when I came to the end I was greeted by a bear on the road. It was just so surreal that I had to go back to see it and pinch myself.”
Dr Jutley also lists crossing the Bosporus from Europe to Asia in Istanbul in September 2022 as another highlight of his rides.
He and his wife, Dr Anita Jutley, have four children aged between 11 and 21, with the entire family having been bitten by the sports bug. Dr Anita, 49, like her husband, is a medical professional – a dental surgeon based in Callander, Scotland – and an avid biker. “My riding career started in 2016. I always had a desire to ride a bike from very early, but it was only until 2016 when my husband encouraged me to go for lessons. I took the opportunity straight away,” she said in an earlier interview, adding that professional trainer Peter Wasike took her through the lessons before she made her riding debut in Magadi.
“She’s now on a Ducati Monster having ridden a 1,200GS BMW while in Kenya,” Dr Jutley notes, adding that their 14-year-old son, “J.J.”, is getting into rallying having just started his season in the Scottish J1000 Ecosse rally championship in a Peugeot 107, a grassroots entry point into rallying age 14. “He’s quick, so watch this space in the future. I am betting you’ll be interviewing him in a few years!
“The girls are into various sports. The eldest competed in the Autograss races while in Kenya but is now focusing on completing her degree in architecture. The other, Gia aged 16, is a talented competition shooter and is being groomed for bigger things. I think she’ll make the Junior Olympics soon.”
Safety concerns
Dr Jutley’s romance with motorsport, in particular safety in motorsports, started during his days as a junior doctor in Scotland. “I witnessed an accident, which I felt was preventable and down to poor driver preparation. It was towards the end of day, and the driver lost concentration due to many factors such as lack of sleep, caffeine overuse, energy drink misuse, dehydration and poor food intake. It got me thinking of developing protocols for amateur drivers for safety purposes,” he says.
The idea developed into a book commissioned by the Haynes Publishing Group. It was supported by the late Colin McRae, Louise Aitken-Walker and Benetton F1. He says: “The book was launched at the 2002 AutoSport Show in Birmingham, with the late Prof Sid Watkins amongst 1,000’s of people. It sold well and led to the second edition in 2009.”
The runaway success of Dr Jutley’s books saw him handed a medical consultant role at Porsche Human Performance in Silverstone at the Hangar Straight of the F1 track.
“I undertook medicals for drivers who then used Precision Hydration products. Most notable was a consulting role at the Racing Steps Foundation aimed to develop motorsport talent in the UK over 10 years,” he says. “This initiative was funded privately by Graeme Sharp and has seen the creation of FIA World Champions and top drivers still in the seat such as James Calado (FIA World Endurance Champion), Jack Harvey (Indy Car USA) and Oliver Rowland (Formula E).”
It was based on this work and experience that Phineas Kimathi, the CEO of the WRC Safari Rally and the might behind bringing back the event, asked that Dr Jutley become the chief medical officer of the Safari Rally. “I am still in this highly enjoyable role, which remains an honour and privilege,” the doctor says.
He describes his 22-year programme to transition to a heart surgeon as “thankfully smooth”.
“I completed the 22-year programme in 17 years and was very young to be appointed as a consultant in the UK aged 37.
“While it looks good on paper, it has been physically demanding and only now do I realise it needs my eight hours of sleep a night.
“Otherwise, with regard to Precision Fuel and Hydration, I probably lose most sleep over how low the acceptance of the science is in my country of birth, Kenya,” he regrets, revisiting his celebrated-abroad-unappreciated-at-home status.
“Globally, I have helped create world champions and Olympians, I have 25,000-plus users on all continents and continue to grow organically. Yet, in Kenya I am struggling to convince talent that the science-based products are better than drinking Fanta and milk mixed.
“Or, indeed, that three cans of Red Bull (energy drink) isn’t the solution to your fatigue on Day Five of the East African Classic Safari Rally.”
Dr Jutley’s balance between the medical profession, sports and family is as delicate, yet as successful as the heart surgeries he performs. “So far, it’s working with a load of delegation to those you trust and have groomed to perform,” he explains.
“My wife is my barometer and if she complains, I change tack. So far, she’s been good and I’m managing to keep all plates spinning.
“As a rider, she recognises the joy the riding brings so that’s a big plus. I have eased off on the medical work by employing a bunch of doctors to do my work with me on the end of the phone, which, incidentally, is also linked to my helmet intercom while I ride.”
The rallying has taken a hit though. “My peak was in 2019 when I won the South African national classic championship in a 1974 Datsun 180B. Since then, it’s been an occasional entry, the last one being in December 2022 in a Porsche 911 navigating a good friend Rajay Sehmi and finishing fifth overall,” he says. “Now it’s largely living the dream vicariously through my son. But there are plans for the Dakar Rally in a few years when he turns 18.”
His final message as we wind up the interview?: “Elias… let’s go create some Kenyan world champions and break the 2:00:00 barrier.” BY DAILY NATION