Kip Keino

Kip Keino, born Kipchoge Hezekiah Keino in 1940 in Kipsamo in Kenya's Nandi District, is a retired Kenyan track and field athlete and one of the first of the long line of successful Kenyan middle and long distance runners. He was a police officer and rugby player before turning to athletics. He lowered the 3000 metres world record in 1965 and then broke the 5000 metres record held by Ron Clarke. At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City he won the 1500 metres gold by 20 metres over the favourite Jim Ryun and took 5000 metres silver, and at the 1972 Olympics in Munich he won the 3000 metres steeplechase and took 1500 metres silver. He later chaired the Kenyan Olympic Committee and, with his wife Phyllis, set up a children's home and two schools in Eldoret.