Henry Wanyoike

Henry Wanyoike Marathon, long distance running
Henry Wanyoike (right) with Joseph Kibunja in Hong Kong, 2008
Personal information
Type of disability (class):	Fully blind (T11)
Nationality:	Kenya
Birthday:	10th May 1974 (age 46)
Place of birth:	Kikuyu, Kenya

Henry Wanyoike (born May 10, 1974 in Kikuyu , Kenya ) is a blind long-distance athlete and participant in several Paralympics .

Career

On May 1, 1995, Wanyoike became blind from an overnight stroke. In developing countries , such blindness means that the person can no longer take care of himself. If there is no family to look after him, he is expelled from the social community. Most of these people live in dire poverty. However, Wanyoike was accepted into a rehabilitation center supported by the Christoffel-Blindenmission .

Paralympics Sydney 2000

He became known when he first participated in the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney. Blind runners have a sighted companion who is connected to the runner by a ribbon. Wanyoike's companion could not keep up with the high speed and suffered a faint attack shortly before the goal. At this point, Wanyoike had already run a large lead over all the other runners in the field, had to pull his companion over the finish line and won the run despite this delay.

He is the current world record holder over 5000 meters (15:11:07 min, Athens , 2004), 10,000 meters (31:37:25 min, Athens, 2004) and in the half marathon (1:10:26 h, Hong Kong , 2004). Wanyoike held the world best time in the marathon until September 17, 2008 with 2:31:31 h ( Hamburg , 2005). The world record is currently set by the Chinese runner Qi Shun (Beijing, 2:30:32 h).

In 2008, Wanyoike suffered a serious car accident in Kenya in which one person was killed. He injured his hand, which was operated on and later became infected, whereupon it had to be operated on again in Helsinki. At the Paralympics in Beijing in 2008, Wanyoike was the flag bearer of Kenya and won the bronze medal over 5000 meters. In 2009, Henry Wanyoike slowly found his way back to his old athletic form after recovering.

Henry Wanyoike is an ambassador for the Christoffel Mission for the Blind , Seeing is Believing , the Paralympics (IPC) and for Light for the World . He also runs every year at Pentecost in the "Run of Spirit" in the Evangelical Johannesstift. He lives in Kikuyu with his wife and four children. He is the founder of the Henry Wanyoike Foundation , which supports various aid projects and initiator of the Run for Hope . This was held for the fifth time in his hometown of Kikuyu in 2011 and has now become the second largest sporting event in Kenya, with over 12,000 participants. Wanyoike is also an ambassador for the German internet radio station "R4H - the radio for accessible minds" .

Henry Wanyoike is one of three main actors in the German documentary Gold - You Can Do More Than You Think , which was released on February 28, 2013.

Awards

• In 2005, Wanyoike was the first Kenyan athlete to be nominated for the Laureus World Sports Award ( World Disabled Athlete of the Year category ).

Sporting successes

• May 2012: Hanover - 22nd place at the Hanover Marathon and successful qualification for the Paralympics 2012 in London (2:47:16 h)
• May 2009: Mannheim - ninth place in the half marathon (1:19:27 h)
• April 2009: Bonn - sixth place in the half marathon (1:14:56 h)
• December 2007: Singapore - sixth place in the half marathon (1:25:15 h)
• November 2006: 121st place (38,368 participants) in the New York City Marathon (2:40:14 h)
• April 2006: Bonn - fifth place in the half marathon (1:14:44 h)
• February 2006: Hong Kong - sixth place (9000 participants) in the half marathon (1:16:47 h)
• January 2006: 53rd place in the Mumbai Marathon (2:52 h)
• December 2005: Singapore - winner of the half marathon (1:16:07 h)
• October 2005: Palma , Mallorca - third place in the half marathon (1:15:24 h)
• September 2005: Wetzlar - winner of the half marathon (1:14:41 h)
• May 2005: Hanover - third place (4500 participants) in the half marathon (1:11:25 h)
• April 24, 2005: another world record in the Hamburg marathon (2:31:31 h)
• April 17, 2005: World record in the London Marathon (2:32:51 h)
• September 2004: Athens - gold and world record over 5000 m (15:11:07 min.) And 10,000 m (31:37:25 min)
• May 2004: Boston - new world record time in marathon (2:33:20 h)
• February 2004: Hong Kong - winner and world record in half marathon (1:10:26 h)
• December 2003: Singapore - silver in the road race over 5000 m
• October 2003: Pan-African Games - Gold over 1500 m
• August 2003: Canada - gold over 5000 and 10,000 m
• May 2003: Boston Marathon Winner (2:49:03 h)
• October 2002: Boston - Winner of the 5000m road race
• July 2002: Lille - two gold medals and world record over 5000 m (15:17:75 min) and 10,000 m (32:34:31 min)
• April 2002: Japan - world record and gold in the blind marathon
• January 2002: Cairo - gold over 800 and 1500 m, silver over 400 m
• 2000: Sydney - First gold medal over 5000 m at the Paralympics (15:46:29 min)

See also

• Summer Paralympics 2004 / athletics / 5000 m
• 2004 Summer Paralympics / Athletics / 10,000 m

literature

• Henry Wanyoike, Bengt Pflughaupt: My long run into the light: The fastest blind marathon man in the world about his incredible life. 2nd Edition. Herder, Freiburg 2006, ISBN 3-451-05543-0 .
• Joseph Ngunjiri, Henry Wanyoike Foundation: Victory Despite Blindness. 2nd Edition. Longhorn Publishers, 2010, ISBN 978-9966-49-927-X .

Web links

Commons : Henry Wanyoike  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Wanyoike's website
• Konstantin Sauer: role models without eyesight. Why Regina Vollbrecht and Henry Wanioyke are more than just the world's best blind marathon runners , 2007

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated July 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.