Samuel Wanjiru

Infobox Marathon
runnername = Samuel Wanjiru


imagesize =
caption = Samuel Wanjiru, winning the olympic marathon gold medal 2008
fullname = Samuel Kamau Wanjiru
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nationality = Kenyan
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birthdate = birth date and age|1986|11|10
birthplace = Nyahururu, Kenya
residence = Fukuoka, Japan
deathdate =
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Samuel Kamau Wanjiru (born November 10, 1986 in Nyahururu) is a Kenyan long distance runner who won the 2008 Beijing Olympic men's Marathon in an Olympic record time of 2:06:32.

Biography

Wanjiru started running at the age of 15. In 2002 he moved to Japan and went to Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School in Sendai, from where he graduated in 2005. He then joined the Toyota Kyushu athletics team, coached by 1992 Olympic marathon silver medalist Koichi Morishita [Daily Nation, July 19, 2008: [http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=5&newsid=127633 OLYMPICS: Wanjiru aims for Beijing gold] ] .

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 whopping 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 Boniface Kiprop Toroitich's 26:39.77 and Kenenisa Bekele's World Record of 26:17.53.

His half-marathon record was broken by Ethiopian track and road running legend Haile Gebrselassie on January 15, 2006 at Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon. Wanjiru took back the half marathon world record with 58:53 minutes on February 9, 2007 in Ras al Khaimah [ [http://www.iaaf.org/news/Kind=2/newsId=37521.html "58:53 Half Marathon World Record by Wanjiru in Ras al Khaimah"] , IAAF, February 9, 2007] and improved it to 58:33 on March 17, 2007 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. [IAAF: December 2, 2007: [http://www.iaaf.org/OLY08/news/kind=2/newsid=42557.html 2:06:39 debut victory for Wanjiru in Fukuoka] ] 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. Samuel Wanjiru is also the first male runner from Kenya to win Gold in this event.

Wanjiru was awarded the 2005 Kenyan Most Promising Sportsman of the Year award. [ [http://www.iaaf.org/news/Kind=131072/newsId=33649.html "Athletes dominate Kenyan Sports Awards"] , IAAF, March 2, 2006]

He has a 5,000 meter best of 13:12.40, run as a 17 year old in April 2004 in Hiroshima, Japan.

His cousin Joseph Riri is a world-class marathon runner, [IAAF, December 16, 2007: [http://www.iaaf.org/news/kind=2/newsid=42686.html Wanjiru, Kenya’s next marathon great? ] ] whereas Samuel's younger brother Simon Njoroge is a long distance runner too. He was mentored by Stephen Ndungu, a marathoner and a pace maker.

= The marathon pace at the 2008 Beijing Olympics =

5 km: 14:52

10 km: 29:25 (14:33)

15 km: 44:36 (15:11)

20 km: 59.10 (14:34) --- half 1:02:34

25 km: 1:13:58 (14:48)

30 km: 1:29:14 (15:16)

35 km: 1:44:37 (15:23)

40 km: 1:59:55 (15:18)

Finish: 2:06:32 (6:37) [ 2008 Beijing Olympics marathon - [http://2008olympics.runnersworld.com/2008/08/mens-marathon.html Men's Marathon: Sammy Wanjiru Runs Greatest Marathon Ever ] ] [ 2008 Beijing Olympics marathon - [http://www.iaaf.org/oly08/results/eventCode=3659/racedate=08-24-2008/sex=M/discCode=MAR/combCode=hash/roundCode=f/results.html#detM_MAR_hash_f marathon result] -- IAAF]

References

External links

*iaaf name|id=191338|name=Samuel Kamau Wanjiru
* [http://www.peaksportsmanagement.co.uk/SamuelKamausStory.html Samuel Kamau's Story] at [http://www.peaksportsmanagement.co.uk/ Peak Sports Management]