Wilson Kipketer - The Man Who Still Holds The 800M World Record.
A Summary
Before I took up marathon as a passion, I was actually obsessed by the middle distance events. I used to see how Sebastion Coe, the person who heads the London Olympics 2012, winning and competing with Steve Ovett and Steve Cram. All of these runners were from England. Sebastion Coe was able to break the 800m, 1000m, 1500m and 1mile World Records within 41 days. All I know was that, during the period, the father by the name of Peter Coe was training Seb Coe to break the record to 1min 41.73sec. Seb Coe was also doing the Strength training program by Sir George Gandy during the period. Sir George Gandy was training middle and long distance runners in Loughborough University then.
Most of the world records of the middle and long distance events kept falling except for Seb Coe's 800m World Record. It was known as the untouchabe record for nearly sixteen years. Ultimately, Wilson Kipketer broke the 800m World Record to 1m 41.11sec.
Wilson Kosgei Kipketer
It is known as Wilson Kosgei Kipketer (born 12 December 1972) was born in Kenya. Later on, he became a Danish citizen and kept running as a middle distance runner. He holds the current world records at both indoor and outdoor 800 and the indoor 1000 metre distances. He kept dominating the 800 m race for nearly 10 years, remaining undefeated for a three-year period. Although, he was not able to win an Olympic gold medal, he was, however, able to win gold medals in three successive editions of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, in Gothenburg(1995), Athens (1997) and Seville (1999).
Who is Wilson Kipketer?
Kipketer was born in Kapchemoiywo, Kenya. His tribe was called Kalenjin tribe.Over time, when Wilson Kipketer was in his teens, he was first observed and noticed by 1968 and 1972 Olympic champion Kip Keino. Keino suggested Kipketer attend the Catholic St. Patrick's High School in Iten that was famous for bringing up young runners.
However, in 1990, when Kipketer travelled to Denmark as a foreign exchange student, studying electronic engineering at the Copenhagen University, he was facinated by Denmark so much so that he applied for Danish citizenship. Kipketer competed for Denmark in the 1995 World Championships. It was there that he claimed his first World Championship title in the 800 metres.
In 1997, Kipketer was at his best. In March, in the Indoor World Championships in Paris, France, he broke the indoor world record time in the heats by nearly a second, breaking Paul Ereng's World Record of 1:44.84 by improving the time to 1:43.96. Later on, he took a second off the world record with an unbelievable 1:42.67 in the finals of the 800m race. On 7 July, he equalled Sebastian Coe's world record of 1:41.73 for the 800 metres at a meeting in Stockholm, Sweden. Coe's record had stood for sixteen years. He went on to break the record twice in the same year, the first time being in Zurich, Switzerland at the Weltklasse GP on 13 August when he ran 1:41.24. On 24 August, eleven days later, he improved the world record to 1:41.11 at the Grand Prix meet in Cologne, Germany. He was voted Track and Field Athlete of the Year by Track and Field News Magazine.
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