Bernard Lagat going to Beijing

Bernard Lagat and James Li Practice for the 2008 Olympics

Bernard Lagat qualified for the 2008 Olympics in the 1500 m. Now a naturalized citizen of the U.S., he is highly favored as the one to bring home the gold for the U.S. His coach, also a naturalized citizen, was originally born and raised in China so I am sure he will be sharing the intricacies of running in the Chinese air, with Lagat. It will be interesting to see if he can pull off a win in the Olympics and bring the coveted, yet elusive 1500m gold home for the U.S. who have not seen a hint of that precious metal, in this category, in almost a century. We will be rooting for Lagat..Go Lagat! Win for Kenya….ahem…I mean…America!

Bernard Lagat

Bernard Lagat won the bronze medal in the 1,500 meters at the 2000 Summer Olympics and the silver in 2004. He’s going for the gold in 2008, and will be doing it under the American Flag. This raised America’s hopes of bringing home the gold in 2008 very high. At the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Lagat surpassed all his previous achievements by becoming the first athlete to become world champion in both the 1,500m and 5,000m at the same IAAF World Outdoor Championships.

So far, the U.S. has been unable to win the 1500 meter race for more than a century so I am sure that there is a lot of optimism in the fact that Bernard Lagat will now be representing them and giving them what promises to be a long-awaited gold.

Although I am sorry that Kenya will not benefit from him running for them, we can take comfort in the fact that he is a Kenyan running under a different mantle, so technically, it’s like we still win….okay, I tried. It won’t be the same but I will savor it anyway.

Lornah Kiplagat, Groet, Netherlands

Amsterdam, The Netherlands – After retaining her title at the Second IAAF World Road Running Championships in Udine, Italy, in a new World record time 10 days ago, sensational Kenyan-born Dutchwoman Lornah Kiplagat has yet another feather in her cap.

The IAAF World Cross Country Championships champion was on Wednesday night (24) awarded the prestigious United Nations “Millennium Shoe Award” in recognition of her contribution to society outside her running career at a glittering ceremony held in downtown Amsterdam.

Kiplagat beat off a strong challenge from Dutch football stars Clarence Seedorf (AC Milan), Dirk Kuyt (Liverpool) and Kalusha Bwalya (formerly PSV Eindhoven and Zambia), among other top sports personalities, to win the award that celebrates the contribution of sports stars to the development of the underprivileged, especially in Africa and other third world countries.

Kiplagat’s triumph was especially in appreciation of her contribution to the High Altitude Training Centre in Iten, Keiyo District of Kenya’s Rift Valley Province, an institution she started from her athletics earnings that seeks to assist women athletes successfully pursue their athletics careers in tandem with primary, high school and university education.

Recently, Kiplagat, who acquired Dutch citizenship in 2003 after marrying to her Dutch coach/manager Pieter Langerhorst, launched the Lornah Kiplagat Foundation in the Netherlands with a view to raising funds to educate needy children up to university level in Kenya.

Kiplagat is also involved as a special ambassador in KLM’s “Doctor to Doctor Project”, an initiative by the Dutch airline that seeks to improve medical care in Africa. The project recently held a medical clinic at the Moi Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya.

The Lornah Kiplagat Foundation has identified needy students who intend to study in the US “Ivy League” institutions such as Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia University and also the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The foundation will soon roll out a national talent search programme to help needy students from all provinces of Kenya.

New York Half Marathon champion Hilda Kibet, who was inspired by Kiplagat to complete her degree in physiotherapy in Amsterdam, and newly-crowned World Military Games 10,000 metres gold medallist Doris Changeiywo, are some of Kiplagat’s products from the High Altitude Training Centre. Kibet, Kiplagat’s cousin, recently acquired Dutch citizenship after a six-year process.

Seven times Dutch Marathon champion Luc Krotwaar and Zimbabwe’s distance running star Sharon Tavengwa are some of the elite athletes who regularly train at Kiplagat’s Iten camp.

At Wednesday night’s ceremony, dubbed “The Night of the UN,” Kiplagat was also appointed as a special ambassador and advisor of the Netherlands’ Ministry of Sport to help in using sport to spur the development agenda.

“I’m overwhelmed by winning this award and also in being named special ambassador by the Ministry of Sports. I hope to see more and more top sports performers used to push the development agenda in Africa,” Kiplagat said after receiving the award from celebrated Dutch fighter, Ernesto Hoost, himself a huge celebrity especially in Japan following his “K-1” fighting exploits in Asia that have seen him win the K-1 world title four times.

“I’m proud of her and of what she has done on the track, road and, most significantly, in helping the underprivileged in Africa,” former Africa Footballer of the Year Bwalya said after losing out to Kiplagat in the final round. Bwalya runs the Kalusha Bwalya Foundation in Zambia that ropes junior players into football and seeks to keep them off drugs and other vices.

The other finalists were Seedorf, former Dutch cycling champion Peter Winnen and paralysed martial artist Lydia La Riviere. Seedorf was not present as he was engaged with European champions AC Milan’s ambitions of retaining their Uefa Champions League title.

After her victory in Udine, Kiplagat was also named an honourary member of the Dutch Athletics Federation, the only recipient of the prestigious award after multiple Olympic champion Fanny Blankers Koen who was also named the Athlete of the Century by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for the 1990s. Blankers Koen won four gold medals at the 1948 Olympic Games in London.

Last year’s inaugural UN Millennium Shoe Award was won by Dutch international football star Aaron Winter.

Kiplagat was on Wednesday presented with a beautiful trophy with the symbolic Millennium Shoe design. The Millennium Shoe Award was initiated last year to bring creativity and sports together, adding values for a better world.

Special sneakers where designed by Dorien van Alphen, who won a design contest, and from the sale of each pair, six Euros are collected towards to help people in Africa lead a better life.

“Clean drinking water is essential for everybody to survive and stay active,” says van Alphen. “We lose six Euros but they (underprivileged in Africa) win a life.”

Kimono, Brand Aid and the NCDO Holland produce the Millennium Shoe.

The NCDO is an independent organiation with the goal to strengthen and highlight public support for international co-operation and sustainable development and the achievement of the Millennium Goals.

Kimono is a fashion brand and supplier of the Millennium Shoe and also supplies trade fair clothes and footwear all over the world raising money for charity.

Source: Lornah’s Foundation website.

Sally Kipyego, Lubbock, Texas

Sally is the first Kenyan to win the NCAA cross country championship and the first lady Raider (Texas Tech Raiders) to acheive academic success for the 2007 season. She ran a record time of 19:30.9 in the 2007 NCAA Championships in Indiana, was voted Mountain Region Female Athlete of the Year (2007), and is considered to be a woman to watch in 2008.

To add to her achievements, she is considered a formidable opponent as she is a three-time undefeated national champion.

Bernard Lagat, United States

Lagat, now a Kenyan American, was born in Kaptel village, near Kapsabet town in Nandi District. His date of birth coincides with Jamhuri Day, the independence day of Kenya. He is a Nandi, sub-tribe of the Kalenjin people. He graduated from the Kaptel High School in 1994, where he had started his athletics career.

He joined Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) in Nairobi 1996. Later in the same year he moved to Washington State University. In 2000, Lagat graduated from Washington State University –as athletic greats Henry Rono and Michael Kosgei from Kenya had done before him– with a degree in management information systems.

Lagat’s older sister Mary Chepkemboi is also a runner and African Champion from 1994.

In March, 2005, Lagat announced that he had become a naturalized citizen of the United States since May 7, 2004, despite competing for Kenya in the 2004 Summer Olympics. Since Kenya does not allow dual citizenship his silver medal in the 1500m is at stake, depending on how Kenya interprets its own laws (as of May, 2005, no additional news has arisen on this issue). Due to this switch of nationality, Lagat served a ban from international championship events. For this reason he missed the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki. A similar switch of nationality, in this case Kenyan to Danish, caused Wilson Kipketer to miss the 1996 Olympic Games.

Lagat owns three American records from races he had run in 2005 that were ratified by USATF. His first American records came indoors, with a 3:49.89 mile at Fayetteville, Arkansas, on February 11, 2005, during which his 1500 meters split time of 3:33.34 also established another new US record, en route to a win in the event. The performance replaced records by Steve Scott, who set the previous American indoor mile record of 3:51.8 in 1981, and the previous American 1500 meter indoor record held by Jeff Atkinson, who ran 3:38.12 in 1989. Lagat’s winning time of 3:29.40 at Rieti, Italy, on August 28, 2005, in the outdoor 1500 meters was ratified as his third new American record, improving upon the old record of 3:29.77, set by Sydney Maree in 1985.

At the 2007 World Championships in Osaka Lagat surpassed all his previous achievements by becoming the first athlete to become world champion in both the 1,500m and 5,000m at the same IAAF World Outdoor Championships. Similar feats were accomplished by Hicham El Guerrouj at the 2004 Olympics and Paavo Nurmi at the 1924 Olympics

Source: Wikipedia

Robert Cheruiyot runs for 4th Boston Marathon title

Robert Cheruiyot is racing to win his fourth title in the Boston Marathon. He has already won it three previous consecutive times and is looking to take this race for a record fourth time.

He faces competition from fellow compatriots–James Kwambai returns, as does Chicago champion Patrick Ivuti. Both men are training partners of Cheruiyot. This is definitely a race to watch. Kenyans have taken the last 10 titles since 1991. They train under two-time Boston Marathon winner, Moses Tanui. Read all about it here.

Henry Rono, Alburquerque, New Mexico

Henry Rono is the stuff that legend is made of. I remember watching trackand field as a child just to see him win with his trademark gap between his teeth.  It was worth the 2 hours of endless running we had to watch. I was always proud to be a Kenyan as the flag was hoisted high and the national anthem played.

I always wondered what happened to him and then I found out that he had a bout of homelessness in Washington DC but went on to fight alcoholism and is now teaching high-schoolers and adults how to be great runners in New Mexico. I think it is tremendous that he has determined to put himself on a positive path. He wrote a book in 2007 entitled “Olympic Dream” which tells about his life.

Learn more about Henry Rono at his site.