Samuel Wanjiru

Samuel Wanjiru was a Kenyan long-distance runner, born on 10 November 1986 in Nyahururu in the Rift Valley, who died on 15 May 2011. He grew up in poverty with his brother and his single mother, left school around age 12 and began running at 8. In 2002 he moved to Japan, attended Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School and won cross country races at Fukuoka and Chiba, later joining the Toyota Kyushu team coached by Koichi Morishita. At 18 he broke the half marathon world record in Rotterdam in 2005 with 59:16, and he set the half marathon world record three times in all. He held the 10,000 m under-20 world record from 2005 until 2024. After winning his marathon debut at Fukuoka in 2007, he won the 2008 Beijing Olympics marathon in an Olympic record 2:06:32, the first Kenyan to take Olympic marathon gold and the youngest champion since 1932. In 2009 he won both the London and Chicago marathons, and he retained his Chicago title in 2010. He died in 2011 after a fall from a balcony at his home in Nyahururu following a domestic dispute.