Noah Ngeny

Noah Ngeny (born November 2, 1978 in Kabenas ) is a Kenyan middle-distance runner and 2000 Olympic champion in the 1500-meter run .

biography

Initially, Ngeny struggled to make it to the top of the world. Many of his countrymen were also strong middle and long distance runners. He got his chance in 1999 at an international meeting where he qualified for the World Athletics Championships in Seville . There he was only beaten by the reigning world champion Hicham El Guerrouj in the final. On September 5th of the same year in Rieti, Ngeny improved the 18-year-old 1000-meter world record of the British wonder runner Sebastian Coe to 2: 11.96 minutes.

At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, he met El Guerrouj, the world record holder and two-time world champion, in the final of the 1500 meter run. This had only been beaten once since the last Olympic Games and was therefore the undisputed favorite. Ngeny pulled away almost 15 meters from the finish, won the race and caused one of the surprises at these games.

In 2001 he was removed from the Kenyan squad for the World Cup in Edmonton after he had not followed the association's instructions. In 2002 he suffered a serious car accident, the aftermath of which thwarted all comeback attempts in the following years. In 2006 he officially announced his retirement from the sport.