Kirsty Wallace for IAAF
18 December 2000 - The 1992 Olympic 3,000 steeplechase champion Matthew Birir believes he has beaten the debilitating viruses that has laid him low in recent seasons and he is looking to show the world he can be back in contention for medals again at major championships, writes Kirsty Wallace.
Last month, Birir won a high class 12km cross country race in Kenya, breaking away over the final two kilometres to leave the well-known Daniel Kipsang and Luke Kipkosgei, among others, trailing in his wake.
Birir's agent Michael Boateng, who works for Jos Hermens' Dutch-based organisation Global Sports Management, said the victory had greatly encouraged the Barcelona gold medallist who, in despair and struggling to return to top form, approached Boateng and Hermens to take over as his representatives at the end of 1997.
"Matthew ran every season after 1992 but he told us his body was not responding to his efforts. He had some medical checks when he came to us and we found he'd been suffering from viral infections," explained Boateng.
"He had not been treated properly previously, and although he recovered, the damage had been done by then and weakened him," added Boateng.
Birir, still only 28, clocked his best of 8.08.12 in 1995 but was consistently finishing outside the medals at major championships. He finished fourth at both the 1993 IAAF World Championships and the 1996 Olympic while at the 1995 IAAF World Championships he tumbled twice on the last lap and slid back to ninth.
After poor seasons in 1997 and 1998, Birir took a long rest last year and boosted his system with a diet of extra vitamins and minerals. This year he has embarked slowly on his comeback and got fifth place at the highly competitive Kenyan Olympic trials in July, which raised hopes that he was back on the right track as far as his health was concerned.
Despite the relative success though, Birir decided not to race prematurely in Europe during August and September and concentrate instead on getting more training under his belt.
Boateng said that Birir, after his recent win in the Kenyan running capital of Eldoret, now intends to race in Europe both on the roads and over the country in the coming months and also contest the Kenyan trials for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, although he has not decided yet whether to bid for glory over 4km or the longer 12km event.
If Birir is on a start line in Dublin it will be a remarkable sight because the last time he ran at the event was more than a decade ago. He finished 6th as a junior in 1990, the year he went on to win the IAAF world junior steeplechase title.