Our Athletes

Laikipia West's Wanjiru bags Sh72m with Chicago record

Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya reacts as he crosses the finish line to win the Chicago Marathon October 11, 2009. By winning Sunday’s race, Wanjiru topped the lucrative, five-race, World Marathon Majors series which comes with a jackpot prize of Sh38 million ($500,000). A huge pay day awaited Samuel Wanjiru in Chicago on Sunday and the Kenyan Olympic champion did not disappoint.

Wanjiru spared no effort in staging yet another brilliant run that boosted his bank balance and set in on course to becoming the best marathoner of all time.

In just his second year of marathon running, the 22-year-old Wanjiru, also this year’s London Marathon champion, won the Chicago Marathon toppling the course record after he completed the city’s flat course on a chilly day under cloudy skies in two hours, five minutes and 41 seconds.

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14-10-09 05:09:57 congrats

12-10-09 01:02:16 Congratulations Wanjiru

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John Ngugi

John Ngugi at the 1990 World XC in Aix les Bains, France John Ngugi Kamau (born May 10, 1962 in Nyahururu, Laikipia) is a former Kenyan athlete, often called one of the greatest cross country runners of all time and winner of the 5000 metres at the 1988 Summer Olympics.

Born in Nyahururu, Kenya, John Ngugi's earliest international successes came at the World Cross Country Championships, where he won a record four consecutive titles between 1986 and 1989 and five titles overall.

Ngugi established himself as a track runner when he won his heat of the 5000 m at the 1987 World Championships in Rome. In the final, Ngugi took the lead during the second kilometre, but despite his front running tactics, he was outsprinted in the finish, finishing in a disappointing twelfth place. He won 5000 metres race in the 1987 All-Africa Games held in Kenya.

At the Seoul Olympic Games, Ngugi took the lead after the kilometre and achieved a 50 m lead. Although his lead was reduced when the expected sprints came in the last lap, Ngugi still managed to win by 30 metres.

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Samuel Wanjiru Kamau

2009-02-17

Samuel Wanjiru During Beijing 08 Olympics 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 Kyūshū athletics team, coached by 1992 Olympic marathon silver medalist Koichi Morishita .

He 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 Boniface Kiprop Toroitich's 26:39.77 and Kenenisa Bekele's World Record of 26:17.53. Wanjiru was awarded the 2005 Kenyan Most Promising Sportsman of the Year award.

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04-07-09 03:24:36 PROPOSED KAHETI QUARRY

15-05-09 05:55:34 Kesho ya jana ni leo

12-05-09 07:48:02 thanks laikipians

11-05-09 16:19:43 Mundu Wa Wanjiru

11-05-09 11:32:31 suffering in the hands of sipili water cartel

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