Nairobi Countdown
Wilfred Kipkemboi Bungei (born July 24, 1980) is a retired Kenyan middle-distance runner who won the gold medal in the 800 meter dash at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He also won the 800 meters championship at the 2006 World Indoor Championships in Moscow, defeating Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and Olympic Champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy.
In 2002 and 2003, Bungei was ranked No. 1 in the world over 800 meters. His personal best time is 1:42.34 minutes (Rieti 2002). He finished second to Andre Bucher in the 800 m at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics in Edmonton.
He competed in sprints and the decathlon in high school before focusing on the 800 meter run. In 1998, he graduated from Samoei High School. He was a silver medalist in the 1998 World Junior Athletics Championships. Bungei competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, for his native country.
Bungei hails from the village of Kabirirsang, which is located near Kapsabet. His brother Sammy Kurgat, who won the 2008 Cologne Marathon, is one of his relatives who is a runner. He is a second cousin of Wilson Kipketer, a Kenyan-born Danish former athlete, and his mother is a relative of Henry Rono.
During the track season, Bungei is stationed near Verona, Italy. He has two boys with his wife, Priscah Bungei (as of 2008).
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Janeth Jepkosgei Busienei (born December 13, 1983) is a former world champion Kenyan middle distance runner. Janeth is from Kabirirsang, near Kapsabet, and is known as “Eldoret Express.” Wilson Kipketer and Wilfred Bungei, two well-known athletes, are both from the same hamlet. She began athletics at Kapsumbeiywo Primary School and competed in a variety of events. Since 1998, she has been a student at Sing’ore Girls High School in Iten, which is known for producing Kenyan female athletes.
Her breakthrough came on March 24, 2006, when she beat Maria de Lurdes Mutola of Mozambique to win the women’s 800 m race at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in a timing of 1 minute, 57.88 seconds. She won the African Championships in Athletics in the 800 meter event later that year. She also broke the Kenyan women’s 800 m record twice. In 2006, Jepkosgei was named Kenyan Sportswoman of the Year.On August 28, 2007, Jepkosgei created Kenyan history when she won gold in the World Championship 800 m final in Osaka, being the first female Kenyan middle distance runner to do so. She led from start to finish, winning in 1 minute, 56.04 seconds, breaking the Kenyan record and setting a new world record (1.56,18) that she had established two days earlier in the heats.
