Ngeny following in the footsteps
of legend Keino
AFP
19 August 2000 – Nairobi - Kenyan middle distance runner Noah Ngeny has been compared to his running idol, Kipchoge Keino, in more ways than one.
Like the legendary Keino - now chairman of the National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOCK) - Ngeny, born to a farming family at Moiben in the country's Rift Valley district of Uasin Gishu in 1978, has dominated distance running at will, both locally and internationally.
While Olympic gold medallist Keino, who starred in Mexico City and Munich, battled American Jim Ryun and held Kenyan and African records in the 1500 metres during his era, Ngeny has likewise been involved in another great rivalry, this time with Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj.
Like Keino in his youthful days, Ngeny is tall and slender and is blessed with the speed of an antelope.
The talented 21-year-old Kenyan army serviceman first showed his pedigree when he set a world junior 1500-metre record, clocking three minutes 32.91 seconds in Monte Carlo in 1997. His new mark beat the previous best at that level set by Ryun way back in 1966.
Since being conscripted into the Kenya army three years ago and coming under the wing of his British manager and coach Kim McDonald, Ngeny has made tremendous progress on the track with a series of good performances.
He made attempts at the shorter 800 metres, winning a race in Sydney in 1998, but seems to have settled for the longer races of 1,000 metres and 1,500 metres, which are better suited to his endurance.
Ngeny had a spectacular season in 1999 when he clocked four fastest times in the world in the 1,500 metres, including a personal best 3:28.73 - a Kenyan national record.
After running the fastest time in France in June last year, he went on to push El Guerrouj to break the world record in the men's mile in Rome a month later.
The world championship silver medallist in Seville, Ngeny returned to Italy in September to smash Sebastian Coe's 18-year-old world record in the men's 1,000 metres.
Ngeny had previously run the second fastest 1,000 metres, missing the old record by 48-hundreths of a second in Nice.
Although El Guerrouj is expected to provide the main opposition to him in Sydney, Ngeny heads for the Olympic Games as one of the country's big hopes for gold in a race that Kenya has not won since the Seoul Olympics in 1988, when compatriot Peter Rono took the prize.
