Samuel Wanjiru

Medal record
Samuel Wanjiru
Men's Athletics
Competitor for  Kenya
Olympic Games
Gold	2008 Beijing	Marathon

Samuel Kamau Wanjiru (born November 10, 1986 in Nyahururu) is a Kenyan athlete who specialises in long distance running. He became a professional at a young age and broke the world record in the half marathon when he was 18 years old. In 2007, he broke the 20 km road running record and improved the half marathon record by over twenty seconds.

He moved up to the full marathon and won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in an Olympic record time of 2:06:32; becoming the first Kenyan to win the Olympic gold in the marathon. The following year he won at both the London Marathon and Chicago Marathon, running the fastest ever marathons recorded in the United Kingdom and United States, respectively.

Career

Wanjiru started running at the age of 15. In 2002, he moved to Japan and went to Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School in Sendai, where he graduated in 2005. He then joined the Toyota Kyūshū athletics team, coached by 1992 Olympic marathon silver medalist Koichi Morishita.^[1]

Wanjiru has a 5,000 meter best of 13:12.40, run as a 17 year old in April 2004 in Hiroshima, Japan. At the age of only 18, Wanjiru broke the half marathon world record on September 11, 2005 in the Rotterdam Half Marathon with a time of 59:16 minutes, officially beating Paul Tergat's half-marathon record of 59:17 minutes. This was preceded two weeks earlier by a bettering of the 10,000 meter World Junior Record by a margin of almost 23 seconds in the IAAF Golden League Van Damme Memorial Race on August 26. His WJR time of 26:41.75 was good enough for third place in the race behind Kenenisa Bekele's World Record of 26:17.53 and Boniface Kiprop's 26:39.77. It was Kiprop who held the previous WJR (27:04.00 minutes), set at the same meeting the previous year.^[2]

2007-2008

Wanjiru took back the half marathon world record, which Haile Gebrselassie broke in early 2006, with 58:53 minutes on February 9, 2007 at the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon^[3]and improved it to 58:33 on March 17, 2007 in the City-Pier-City Loop in The Hague, The Netherlands. While improving his own record, he also broke Haile Gebrselassie's 20 km world record with a time of 55:31, a 17-second improvement.

Wanjiru made his marathon debut at Fukuoka Marathon on December 2, 2007, winning it impressively with a course record of 2:06:39.^[4] In the 2008 London Marathon, he came in second, breaking 2:06 for the first time. In the 2008 Summer Olympics, Wanjiru won the marathon gold medal in an Olympic record time of 2:06:32, smashing the previous record of 2:09:21 set by Carlos Lopes of Portugal in the 1984 Olympics.^[5]

2009

At the 24th Mitja Marató de Granollers, in which Wanjiru won, he was quoted saying, "in five years' time I feel capable of clocking a sub 2 hours time for the Marathon."^[6] In April 2009, Wanjiru won the London Marathon in a time of 2:05:10, a new personal record and also a new course record. He was pleased with the achievement and stated that he hoped to break Haile Gebrselassie's world record in the near future.^[7] At the Rotterdam Half Marathon, Wanjiru clocked a 1:01:08 on 13th September, which was won by Sammy Kitwara with a time of 58:58.^[8] In October 2009, Wanjiru won the Chicago Marathon in a time of 2:05:41, setting a new course record for the city and the fastest marathon time ever run in the United States.^[9] The wins in London and Chicago helped him reach the top of the World Marathon Majors rankings for 2009, earning him a jackpot of US$500,000.^[10]

Personal life

His cousin Joseph Riri is a world-class marathon runner,^[11] and Wanjiru's younger brother Simon Njoroge is also a long distance runner. Wanjiru was mentored by Stephen Ndungu, a marathoner and a pace maker.

Wanjiru was awarded the 2005 Kenyan Most Promising Sportsman of the Year award.^[12]

He won the 2008 Kenyan Sportsman of the Year Award.^[13]

Personal bests

Samuel Wanjiru, breaking a world record in the 2007 Fortis City-Pier-City Half Marathon

All Information taken from IAAF profile.^[14]

Key: † = World junior record, ‡ = World record

References

External links

• IAAF profile for Samuel Kamau Wanjiru
• Focus on Athletes article from IAAF
• Samuel Kamau's Story at Peak Sports Management
• Rosa & Associati profile
• Samuel Wanjiru reviews after Rotterdam half marathon

Records
Preceded by Paul Tergat	Men's Half Marathon World Record Holder September 11, 2005 – January 15, 2006	Succeeded by Haile Gebrselassie
Preceded by Haile Gebrselassie	Men's Half Marathon World Record Holder February 9, 2007 –	Succeeded by Incumbent
Preceded by Haile Gebrselassie	Men's 20 kilometres World Record Holder March 17, 2007	Succeeded by Incumbent
Sporting positions
Preceded by Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot	Rotterdam Men's Half Marathon Winner 2005	Succeeded by Zersenay Tadese
Preceded by Haile Gebrselassie	Men's Half Marathon Best Year Performance 2007	Succeeded by shared between Haile Gebrselassie & Deriba Merga