Emmanuel Korir comes from western Kenya, where he grew up in a village near the city of Iten . He attended the same school as Olympic champion and 800 meter world record holder David Lekuta Rudisha . At first he mainly competed in the 400-meter run. On the advice of Olympic champion Paul Ereng , who was enthusiastic about Korir's explosiveness, he turned to the 800-meter run and moved to the United States after graduating from school. There he began studying movement science at the University of Texas at El Paso . For the university he took part in college competitions in the USA as part of the sports team, the UTEP Miners .
Athletic career
Emmanuel Korir first competed in the national championships over 800 meters in 2016. He finished eighth. Before that, he mainly competed over half the distance. In January 2017, he ran an indoor competition in Albuquerque for a time of 1: 14.97 minutes over 600 meters, setting an indoor world record. Only a week later, however, this time was again undercut by a hundredth of a second. As of 2020, he is in fourth place in the world's best list. In April he set new records in both the 400 and 800 meters. At the age of 21, he was the youngest person at the time who could stay over 400 meters under 45 seconds and at the same time run over 800 meters faster than 1:45 minutes. He was only able to confirm a time of 1:43 min in 2017 at the Kenyan Championships in June, where he won the gold medal in 1: 43.86 min. A month later he won a competition in Monaco with a best time of 1: 43.10 min. At the season highlight, the World Championships in London, he did not come close to these times. Although he survived the preliminary run, he was eliminated in 1: 46.08 min, however, in the semi-finals and ended up in tenth place overall.
In February 2018, Korir set an indoor African record in 1: 44.21 minutes in New York City. In June he became the Kenyan champion over 400 meters with a time of 44.21 seconds. This time meant sixth place on the annual world best list in this discipline. In July Korir improved his 800 meter time in London to 1: 42.05 min and thus won this strong race. It was the fastest 800-meter race since 2012 and moved Korir to third place on the all-time world best list as of 2020. At the beginning of August he also competed over the 800 meters at the African Championships in Nigeria. He achieved a time of 1: 45.65 minutes in the final and thus won the silver medal. Two days later he won the gold medal with the Kenyan 4 x 400 meter relay with a new championship record. In August 2019 Korir ran the best performance of 1: 43.69 min over 800 meters. In addition to the 800 meters, he decided to start the 400 meters at the World Championships in Doha in September and October. First he reached the semi-finals over 800 meters, but retired in 1: 45.19 minutes as third-placed due to the fact that the other semi-finals were faster. Overall, like at the last World Championships, he finished tenth. It went better for him over the 400 meters. In this competition he reached the finals, in which he ran a time of 44.94 s, with which he finished sixth.