Noah Ngeny (2389) wins the Olympic title in Sydney (© Getty Images)
Kenya’s Olympic 1500m champion Noah Ngeny hopes he can mount a defence of his crown in Athens after finally putting behind him the shattering physical and emotional fall out from what was personally the very grim month of November 2001.
Ngeny, of course, caused one of the biggest sensations of the Sydney Olympics by becoming the first man in four years to defeat the great Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj at the 1500m.
Emotional and physical trauma
His Olympic triumph should have represented the launch-pad for a glorious career but since then the Kenyan has been continually frustrated by niggling injuries, which have limited his performance to such an extent that many believe Ngeny’s greatest day may already have been played out in Stadium Australia.
However, if we look at the facts more closely we can trace many of the problems back to November 2001 – the month his agent, Kim McDonald, prematurely died in an Australian hotel.
“At first I didn’t believe it,” said Ngeny of receiving the news of McDonald’s death. “I didn’t want to run and I thought about giving up. Kim was my advisor, coach and friend. He gave me the belief I could be Olympic champion.”
After returning home from McDonald’s funeral Ngeny’s problems mounted when he was involved in a car crash.
The Olympic champion was travelling from Nairobi Airport when the taxi he was travelling in smashed into a lorry, Ngeny sustaining a back injury.
Persistent hip injury
At first he believed the injuries were inconsequential. But the repercussions of that day have cast a huge shadow over Ngeny’s athletics career. For every time the Eldoret-based athlete has been on the brink of returning to peak fitness, an injury to his left hip, linked to the back problems he suffered in the car crash, has come back to haunt him.
“It is really frustrating,” said Ngeny, who has sought the help of dozens of experts to try and rid him of the problem. “It is hard to experience. I always become fit and then I suffer serious, serious pain in my hip. It normally happens when I’m really sharp.”
Indeed, such have been the consequences of the injury the Ricky Simms coached-athlete has only made a handful of appearances on the European circuit in the past two years. But such is his ability he ran 3:33 to place third over 1500m at last summer’s IAAF GPII meeting in Prague after having only jogged in the month leading up to the race.
Yet, with the Olympic Games clearly on the horizon, Ngeny is confident the injury problems are finally behind him and he is still to produce the best form of his career.
“At the moment I am training with the cross country guys and I’m keeping up with the work outs and everything is going well,” he added. “I want to train hard and prepare for Athens, it is important to me. I plan to next race in June.”
And when asked whether he truly believes he can return to his best form he replied: “Yes, I hope so. I think I can run faster.”
"Smart in the mind"
He is currently receiving treatment on an injury from Irish physical therapist Gerard Hartmann, which sounds like more bad news. But the hip problem this time is significantly on the right and not the left side, his problem area since the crash, so the treatment is viewed as mild distraction rather than anything too sinister.
Ngeny's straightforward explanation of his sensational 1500m victory at the Sydney Olympics, was that a runner has to be ‘smart in the mind’ to defeat Hicham El Guerrouj. Well, considering the problems the Olympic champion has had to endure over the past few seasons he will also have to be ‘strong in the mind’ if he is to return to peak form and defend his title in Athens. We wish him well.