Kenya's 800 metres Olympic champion and millionaire Pamela Jelimo has returned home to dozens of placards proposing marriage.

The 18-year-old police constable claimed the Golden League $1 million jackpot earlier this month after winning her event at the season's six meetings. She had taken Olympic gold in Beijing last month. As she toured her Rift Valley home area on Thursday and Friday, huge crowds turned out to see her after she landed by helicopter.

Traditional dancers performed and women sang praise songs. Young men brandished signs saying "Pamela Marry Me!" "Jelimo's performance really inspired me," Nancy Chero-tich, a friend from the runner's schooldays said. "It made me wish I could run again." A convoy of nearly 200 vehicles followed her up the dusty road from Eldoret town to her home village near Kapsabet.

Jelimo will have a street in Kapsabet named after her -- an honour normally reserved for top politicians in a country better known for its long-distance runners.

Post-election violence in Kenya at the start of the year disrupted the training of a number of the country's athletes in the Rift Valley, but Jelimo's home village was unscathed.