Daniel Komen

The title of this article is ambiguous. A description of the middle and long distance runner born in 1984 can be found under Daniel Kipchirchir Komen

Daniel Komen
Full name	Daniel Kipngetich Komen
nation	Kenya
birthday	17th May 1976 (age 44)
place of birth	Mwen ,  Kenya
size	170 cm
Weight	55 kg
Career
discipline	Medium and long distance running
Best performance	1500 m : 3: 29.46 min Mile : 3: 46.38 min 3000 m : 7: 20.67 min 2 miles : 7: 58.61 min 5000 m : 12: 39.74 min
status	resigned
Medal table
World championships 1 × 0 × 0 × Cross Country World Championship 1 × 1 × 0 × Commonwealth Games 1 × 0 × 0 × African Championships 1 × 0 × 0 × Junior World Championships 2 × 0 × 0 ×
World championships gold Athens 1997 5000 m  World Cross Country Championships silver Marrakech 1998 Short distance single gold Marrakech 1998 Short distance team  Commonwealth Games gold Kuala Lumpur 1998 5000 m  African Championships gold Dakar 1998 5000 m  Junior World Championships gold Lisbon 1994 5000 m gold Lisbon 1994 10,000 m

Daniel Komen ( Daniel Kipngetich Komen ; born May 17, 1976 in Mwen near Marakwet ) is a Kenyan medium and long distance runner who celebrated his greatest success by winning the title over 5000 meters at the World Athletics Championships in Athens in 1997 .

Together with Saïd Aouita , Ali Saïdi-Sief and Hicham El Guerrouj, Komen belongs to the exclusive club of runners who ran 1500 meters under 3:30 minutes, 3000 meters under 7:30 minutes and 5000 meters under 13:00 minutes. In the English-speaking world, where the mile distance still has an outstanding status in the running area, he achieved special fame as the first and so far only person with two four-minutes with his world record over two miles (3218 meters) of 7: 58.61 min - ran miles in a row.

Komen is not related to the middle and long distance runner Daniel Kipchirchir Komen , who was born in 1984 and has been successful in international races since 2004. His brother is Samson Kiplangat Ngetich .

Career

In 1994 he won silver in the junior race at the World Cross Country Championships , was junior African champion over 5000 meters and junior world champion over 5000 and 10,000 meters . At the Commonwealth Games in Victoria , he came in ninth place over 10,000 meters.

Komen made his first big appearance in the adult sector at the Golden Gala on June 8, 1995 in Rome. In a rousing 5000 meter race, he drove his trainer and mentor Moses Kiptanui to a world record and set a junior world record of 12: 56.15 minutes.

1996 started with failure for Komen, as he finished fourth in the Kenyan Olympic eliminations and was not allowed to participate in the Atlanta Olympics. So he concentrated on the Grand Prix and started an impressive triumphal march in the post-Olympic races. At the world-class meeting in Zurich on August 14th, he relegated Haile Gebrselassie, who is almost unbeatable, to second place with a seven-second lead and narrowly failed his world record in 12: 45.09 min. The highlight of the season, however, was the 3000 meter race in Rieti on September 1st. In 7: 20.67 minutes, Komen pulverized Noureddine Morceli's world record and set a mark that Gebrselassie and Hicham El Guerrouj also struggled with despite several attempts.

The 1997 track season was marked by an unprecedented world record hunt. Almost every Grand Prix sports festival had a serious record attempt, and Komen was involved in most of them on the 3,000 to 5,000 meter routes. However, Gebrselassie delivered the first highlight with a two-mile world record on May 31st in Hengelo. Komen took this from him shortly before the World Championships on July 19 in Hechtel and was the first person to stay under eight minutes in 7: 58.61 minutes. At the World Championships in Athens , Komen celebrated a safe victory over 5000 meters. The hoped-for duel with Gebrselassie did not come about, because he only competed over 10,000 meters and won over this distance. The record hunt continued after the World Championships. Gebrselassie presented an increase in the record of the Kenyan obstacle specialist Moses Kiptanui from 12: 55.30 min to 12: 41.76 min on August 13 in Zurich and clearly beat Komen. His answer was only nine days in coming: On September 22nd, he ran at the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels at 12: 39.74 min.

Komen opened the year 1998 with world records in the hall. While the 12: 51.48 min over 5000 meters have meanwhile been improved by Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele , the 7: 24.90 min mark over 3000 meters is still there. Even in the open air, only Komen himself and Hicham El Guerrouj were faster. The 5000 meter indoor world record was Komen's last record. Shortly after the indoor season, he ran close to his two-mile world record in February. In mid-March, silver followed over the short distance of the cross-country world championships . In the further course of the season, Komen won over 5000 meters at the African Athletics Championships , the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur .

In 1999 (5000 meters) and 2000 (3000 meters) he was third on the world best-of-the-year list, but the high level of competition between 1996 and 1998 (sometimes with several races in one week) and the incredible training intensity of Komen took their toll: his previous role as the only one Serious competitor Gebrselassies next to Paul Tergat he could no longer do justice. At the 1999 World Championships he was fifth over 5000 meters, and the following year he was absent from the elimination bouts for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney due to malaria . While Gebrselassie continued to win international medals, Komen's slow decline manifested itself in the world's top rankings 11 and 17 in 2001 and 2002. Since then, he has not contested any more international competitions, and a planned comeback as a marathon runner with Dieter Hogen as coach did not materialize .

Personal best

• 1500 m: 3: 29.46 min, August 16, 1997, Monaco
• 1 mile : 3: 46.38 min, August 26, 1997, Berlin
• 2000 m : 4: 51.30 min, June 5, 1998, Milan
• 3000 m: 7: 20.67 min, September 1, 1996, Rieti (world record)
  • Hall: 7: 24.90 min, February 6, 1998, Budapest (world record)
• 2 miles: 7: 58.61 min, July 19, 1997, Hechtel (world best time)
• 5000 m: 12: 39.74 min, August 22, 1997, Brussels
  • Hall: 12: 51.48 min, February 19, 1998, Stockholm
• 10,000 m : 27: 38.32 min, August 30, 2002, Brussels
• 10 km road run : 27:46 min, April 17, 1994, Vancouver

Web links

• Daniel Komen in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Portrait on the 1999 World Indoor Championships website
• Daniel Komen on KIMbia Athletics ( Memento from September 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 5000 m men on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on June 17, 2020