Paul Tergat

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Paul Tergat

Paul Tergat (born June 17, 1969 in Baringo ) is a Kenyan long-distance runner and former holder of the world record in 10,000 meters , half marathons and marathons . He has been a member of the IOC since 2013 .

Career

From 1995 to 1999 he was world champion in cross country five times in a row . At the World Athletics Championships in Gothenburg in 1995 he was third in the 10,000-meter run, at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta he won the silver medal over the same distance, as well as the 1997 World Championships in Athens , the 1999 World Championships in Seville and the Olympic Games 2000 in Sydney , where he lost to his eternal rival Haile Gebrselassie by only nine hundredths of a second in this race .

After setting a world record in the half marathon with 59:17 minutes in April 1998 and becoming world champion over this distance in 1999 and 2000 , he decided to tackle the marathon distance. In 2001 he finished second in the London and Chicago marathons , in 2002 he beat Gebrselassie in London in their only meeting in a marathon and came second in 2:05:48 h behind Khalid Khannouchi , who set a world record in this race. In the fall, Tergat took fourth place in Chicago in 2:06:18 h and the same place in London in 2:07:59 h in 2003.

Tergat at the finish line in the Berlin Marathon 2003

A few months later, at the 2003 Berlin Marathon , it was his turn to set the world record. In a dramatic race he fought with Sammy Korir , who had set the pace for him in the first half and was only a second behind him in the end, he improved Khannouchi's London record by 43 seconds to 2:04:55 h. This time was later recognized by the IAAF as the first official marathon world record and lasted until September 30, 2007 Haile Gebrselassie was almost half a minute faster at the same point with 2:04:26 hours.

The 2004 Athens Olympics, on the other hand, turned into a disappointment when he developed stomach problems and finished in tenth place.

In 2005 he won the New York City Marathon in a race that was even closer than the one in Berlin. He was just 32 hundredths of a second ahead of last year's winner Hendrick Ramaala .

In 2006 he had to cancel another duel with Gebrselassie at the London Marathon due to an injury, in New York City he came third.

In 2007 he finished sixth in London with 2:08:05 h, the fastest time since his world record.

In 2008 he finished third in New York City, and in 2009 he won the third major marathon of his career, the Lake Biwa Marathon.

Tergat in his role as IOC member at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games .

He has been a member of the IOC since 2013 .

Private

Paul Tergat is 1.82 m tall and weighs 62 kg. He lives in Ngong , a small town southwest of Nairobi , is married and has three children. He is a sergeant in the Kenyan Air Force and a member of the IAAF Athletes Commission. Since 2004 he has also been an ambassador for the World Food Program WFP , which once supported him with free meals when he attended school.

Personal best

distance time date place Remarks
3000 m 7: 28.70 min August 10, 1996 Monaco
5000 m 12: 49.87 min August 13, 1997 Zurich
10,000 m 26: 27.85 min August 22, 1997 Brussels World record (until 1998)
10 km road run 27:51 min April 17, 1999 Milan
half marathon 59:17 min April 4, 1998 Milan World record (until 2005)
marathon 2:04:55 h September 28, 2003 Berlin World record (until 2007)

literature

  • Jürg Wirtz: Paul Tergat. Champ and gentleman. His life, his successes, his training. With lots of tips for runners. Meyer and Meyer, Aachen 2005, ISBN 3-89899-084-2
  • Seppo Luhtala: Top distance runners of the century: motivation, pain, success: world-class Athletes tell , Meyer & Meyer Verlag 2002, ISBN 9781841260693 , 355 pp.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ IAAF: Tergat wins Lake Biwa Marathon in 2:10:22 ( Memento from March 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). March 1, 2009
  2. ^ Paul Tergat on the WFP website
  3. ↑ Tergat ran in Lisbon 59:10 min (2005) and 59:06 min (2000). However, these times are not recordable due to the unacceptable gradient of the route.
personal data
SURNAME Tergat, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Kenyan long distance and marathon runner
DATE OF BIRTH 17th June 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Baringo