Week in Review: Making up for lost time
McKiver's world best in 600-yard run comes after he leaves injury woes behind
Where the heck did he come from?
That was one of the first thoughts that crossed my mind when I read that Jenoah McKiver of the University of Florida had set a world best in the men’s 600-yard run in the Texas Tech Corky Classic last Saturday.
While the 600-yard event is contested even less often than the 600-meter race that is three laps around a standard 200-meter track, McKiver’s time of 1:05.75 was more than a second faster than the previous best of 1:06.93 set by Kenyan Moitalel Mpoke when he was competing for South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, in 2020.
In addition, it was nearly 1.7 seconds faster than the official collegiate record of 1:07.44 that the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Association had listed for Baylor’s Nathaniel Ezekiel.
I was aware of Ezekiel when he set his record last January because he had placed second in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles in the 2023 NCAA championships.
I had no such reference point for McKiver. But after conducting some research about the fifth-year Gator senior and interviewing him on the telephone, it’s fair to say he didn’t come out of nowhere, although he has taken a circuitous route to get to where he is.
“I felt great,” McKiver said of his record run. “I also thought I started out too fast. But I thought if I slowed down [intentionally], it would hurt more so I decided to just keep going. I felt my body trying to slow down toward the last 100, but when I came off the curve and looked at the clock, that gave me an extra boost to run faster.”
A desire to improve his speed on the football field led to McKiver running track for the first time as junior at Andrews High School in High Point, North Carolina.
Despite his inexperience, he ran 47.24 in the 400 during that first season and was the third fastest prep performer in North Carolina in 2019. He hoped to run well under 47 seconds as a senior in 2020, but the outdoor season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After lowering his personal best to 46.93 during a short indoor season at the University of Iowa in 2021, he clocked 47.18 outdoors and finished eighth in the Big Ten Conference championships.
He made rapid progress during his second indoor campaign as he lowered his personal best to 45.39 and placed second in the NCAA championships in 2022.
His improvement continued when he opened the outdoor season with a 44.74-second clocking while winning a section of the Jim Click Shootout and Multis meet at the University of Arizona on April 9. But he pulled up with a torn right hamstring in a 200-meter heat of the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in Walnut, California, six days later.
That injury ended his collegiate season and his return to competition did not go well as he ran ran 47.20 to place sixth in a first-round heat of the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships in late June.
Although he won the 400 in 45.59 in the Big Ten outdoor championships in May of 2023, he did not advance to the NCAA championships and he entered his name in the transfer portal in June.
While he had nothing negative to say about his time at Iowa, McKiver said his transfer was the result of wanting to be “in an environment that took track to another level and I believed Florida was that type of program.”
Despite his optimistic outlook, McKiver’s hamstring injuries continued after joining a Florida program that had won the first of what is now three consecutive NCAA titles outdoors.
He did not finish the 400 in last year’s Southeastern Conference indoor championships. Nor did he advance to the NCAA outdoor championships in the 400 after finishing eighth in the SEC meet.
Nonetheless, he produced splits of 45.46 and 43.91 while running legs on Gator 4 x 400-meter relay teams that finished second and third, respectively, in the NCAA indoor and outdoor championships.
Although the 6-foot-3 (1.90 meters), 173-pound (78.5kilograms) McKiver has dealt with eight hamstring injuries during his collegiate career, he says the physical training staff at Florida believes his issues have been related to tightness in his lower back and ankles and he has been injury free since May of last year.
“Ever since I have been working on my lower back and ankles and my mobility and stuff like that, my hamstring issues have not been an issue,” he said. “It hasn’t involved much weight lifting. It’s just having better mobility and flexibility in those areas.”
McKiver is scheduled to run the 400 in the Razorback Invitational at the University of Arkansas on Feb. 1, and if he produces a high-quality time in that meet, he could very well run 800 in the Tyson Invitational on Feb. 15 before running in the 400 and 4 x 400 relay in the SEC championships from Feb. 27-March 1.
Most 400 sprinters want nothing to do with an 800, but McKiver says that competing in the latter race will ultimately benefit him in the former.
“The 800 is a hard race,” he said. “I believe it is harder than the 400 if you run it right, and run it all-out. It’s a really tough event, but I just like doing it because I believe it will help me finish strong in my 400.”
When asked about his immediate goals, McKiver said he wants to keep moving forward, take things one step at a time, and stay healthy. But he added that he would like to better the 44.49 clocking that is the fastest indoor time in history, as well as lower the Florida school record of 43.70 in the outdoor 400 that was set by Champion Allison when he placed second in the 2022 USATF Outdoor Championships.
When it comes to his long-term goals, his aspirations are huge. He wants to be the first man in history to run under 43 seconds in the 400.
South African Wayde van Niekirk lowered the world record in the 400 to 43.03 in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, but McKiver’s goal is to better that mark by at least four hundredths of a second.
“I talk about it all the time, with a straight face, to some of my friends and my coaches,” he said. “I want to be the first person to go 42 point.”
Double victor: Masai Russell, the Olympic champion in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, won the 60 hurdles and 60 sprint event on the first day of the Corky Classic last Friday.
The 24-year-old American ran 7.89 seconds in the 60 hurdles while defeating defending World indoor champion Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas by four hundredths of a second and she came back about 35 minutes later to win the 60 in a personal best of 7.34 while finishing four hundredths of a second in front of runner-up Tyre Gittens of the U.S.
Charlton placed third in 7.50.
Russell’s performances came six days after she had opened her indoor campaign by running 52.85 seconds on the second leg of a 4 x 400 relay while competing for a Kentucky Elite squad that finished second in 3:37.49 in the Rod McCravy Memorial in Lexington, Kentucky.
Welcome back: Trayvon Bromell, whose 2024 season was short-circuited by an abductor injury, won the Olympic Development race of the men’s 60-meters dash in 6.62 seconds in the Corky Classic last Friday.
Looking very controlled, the 29-year-old Bromell got off to a solid start before powering away from his competition as Americans Michael Dickson and Connor Schulman placed second and third in times of 6.83 and 6.84, respectively.
It was the first race for Bromell since the two-time World championship bronze medalist in the 100 had run 10.20 while finishing fourth in a qualifying heat of the Holloway Pro Classic last July.
Bromell had previously had to withdraw from the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in late June because of the abductor injury he had incurred while running in a qualifying heat of a meet in Savonna, Italy, in mid-May.
Rapid ascent: Josh Hoey, a man who began 2024 with personal bests of 1:47.26 in the 800 meters and 4:00.27 in the mile, continued his meteoric rise in the middle distances when he set a U.S. indoor record of 2:14.48 in the men’s one-kilometer run in the Quaker Invitational in Philadelphia last Saturday.
The time by the 25-year-old Hoey bettered the previous national record of 2:16.16 set by Shane Streich in 2022, moved him into second on the all-time performer list, and left him nearly six seconds in front of Villanova freshman Dan Watcke, who placed second in 2:20.10.
He also came within .28 seconds of the world record of 2:14.20 set by Ayaneh Souleiman of Djibouti in 2016.
Hoey had run a then-personal best of 1:44.12 in the 800 while finishing fourth in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials on June 30 of last year before lowering his best to 1:43.80 while winning a race in Kortrijk, Belgium, 13 days later.
He then ran a personal best of 3:52.61 in winning the mile in the Boston University Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener on Dec. 7. But his performance at the Jane and David Ott Center last Saturday topped any of his previous efforts.
Paced by his brother, Jonah, for the first two laps of the 200-meter track, Josh clocked 26.56 seconds for the first 200 and 53.49 for the initial 400.
He was then in first place when he came through 600 meters in 1:20.80 and 800 in 1:48.23.
He was nearly two and half seconds ahead of Watcke at that point in the race, but he more than doubled his advantage on the final lap. Driving hard with his arms and leaning as he crossed the finish line, Hoey’s last circuit of 26.25 seconds was his fastest of the race and was more than three seconds quicker that Watcke’s split of 29.46.
Another kilo mark falls: Georgetown University sophomore Tinoda Matsatsa lowered the collegiate record in the men’s 1,000 meters for the second time in the last year when he ran 2:16.84 in winning the event in the Nittany Lion Challenge in University Park, Pennsylvania, last Saturday.
Matsatsa’s time bettered the national record of 2:18.05 that he had set in the Hokie Invitational in Blacksburg, Virginia, on Jan. 19 of last year, and he needed to run very fast because senior teammate Abel Tefffra finished second in 2:17:39, followed by Georgetown junior Theo Woods in 2:22.89.
Matsatsa did not get off to a great start was he was in fourth place after running his first 200 in 28.29 seconds, but he was in third place when he came through 400 meters in 55.24 and he was in second when he passed 600 in 1:22.26.
He had a small lead over Teffra when he came through 800 meters in 1:49.54 and his advantage grew a bit more during the last lap as his advantage increased by three tenths of a second in the race at the Multi-Sport Facility & Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track.
The collegiate record came in the second race of Matsatsa’s indoor season as he had run a personal best of 3:54.15 while finishing second in the mile in the Boston University Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener on Dec. 7. That performance had come a little more than five months after he finished ninth in 800 in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials with a time of 1:45.70.
“Tinoda and Abel are two of the best young middle distance prospects in the U.S.,” Georgetown assistant coach Brandon Bonsey was quoted as saying in a gwhoyas.com post. “I figured this would happen but it still was really cool to see. Breaking an NCAA record can't be taken for granted. They are both heading back to D.C. happy and excited for what the rest of the season has in store.”
Another sub-2:40 clocking: Hayley Kitching of Penn State became the fourth woman in collegiate history — and the second within a week — to run under 2 minutes and 40 seconds in the 1,000 meters indoors when she clocked 2:39.86 in the Nittany Lion Challenge.
Kitching’s time moved her to third on the all-time collegiate list, was a little more than a second off the collegiate record of 2:38.58 set by Penn State’s Danae Rivers in 2019 and came a week after Clemson sophomore Gladys Chepngetich had run 2:39.99.
It also paced Penn State to a 1-2-3 finish as fellow junior Allison Johnson finished second in 2:43.05, with freshman Ada Reid at 2:45.14.
Kitching, who had run a personal best of 2:01.05 in the 800 while finishing fifth in the NCAA outdoor championships last year after placing fourth in the indoor meet three months earlier, was in second place on Saturday when pacesetter — and freshman teammate — Ashley Pines went through the first lap in 30.66 seconds and the second one in 1:02.99.
She then moved into the lead after Pines dropped out and clocked 1:35.23 at 600 meters, 2:07.46 at 800, and 2:39.86 at the finish.
After coming through the first lap in 30.83 seconds, Kitching’s final four circuits were very evenly paced as she clocked 32.23, 32.17, 32.23, and 32.40 on her subsequent trips around the 200-meter oval.
Maloney doubles: Shafiqua Maloney of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines won a depth-laden women’s 600 meters after cruising to an easy win in the mile in the Arkansas Invitational in Fayetteville last Friday.
Maloney, who finished fourth in the 800 in the Olympic Games, won the women’s mile by nearly nine seconds with a time of 4:42.39 before taking the 600 in a yearly world-leading time of 1:24.60 while moving to ninth on the all-time performer list.
Her victory in the 600 came in a race in which five women ran under 1:27, including junior Sanu Jallow of the University of Arkansas, a native of Gambia who placed second in an African record of 1:25.37 to move to second on the all-time collegiate list.
That time was only .21 seconds off the collegiate record of 1:25.16 that was set by Arkansas’ Britton Wilson on the same Randal Tyson Indoor Center track in 2023.
The 25-year-old Maloney was in first place when she came through the first 200 meters in 25.49 seconds, but Jallow was in the lead when she completed two laps in 54.36. However, Maloney regained the lead on the final circuit of the 200-meter oval.
Rosey Effiong of the U.S. placed third in 1:26.08, after moving up two places on the last lap, and she was followed by Amber Anning of Great Britain in 1:26.60, and senior Anna Podojil of Arkansas.
Effiong’s time moved her to 10th on the all-time U.S, performer list, Anning’s clocking made her the fifth-fastest Brit in history, and Podojil is now the eight-fastest collegian ever.
Double trouble: Twins Amanda and Hana Moll of the University of Washington each cleared 4.65 meters (15 feet 3 inches) when they placed first and second in the women’s elite division of the National Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada, last Friday.
Although the sophomores each made 4.65 before missing three times at 4.75 (15-7), Amanda won the competition because she cleared the winning height on her first attempt and Hana did it on her second in the competition at the Reno Livestock Events Center.
Amanda also had fewer misses during the competition than Hana and would have won the event on that tiebreaker had Hana cleared 4.65 on her first try.
The clearances at 4.65 moved Amanda and Hana into a three-way tie for fifth on the all-time collegiate indoor performer list.
While Amanda needed two tries to get over her first two heights of 4.30 (14-1¼) and 4.45 (14-7¼), she moved into first place when she cleared 4.55 (14-11) on her first attempt.
Defending NCAA indoor champion Hana was in the lead after clearing 4.30 on her first try and 4.45 on her second, but she dropped to second when it took her three attempts to clear 4.55.
Versatile performer: USC senior Johnny Brackins, the defending USA Track & Field indoor champion in the men’s long jump, won the 60-meter hurdles in 7.49 seconds in the Spokane Showcase in Spokane, Washington, last Friday.
Brackins, the runner-up in the 60 highs in last year’s NCAA championships, clocked 7.49 in the final after running 7.53 in his qualifying heat. Junior John Paredes of Washington State placed second in the final in 7.67. He was followed by freshman Madhvendra Shekhawat of Eastern Washington in 7.78.
Brackins’ winning time moved him into sixth on the all-time collegiate performer list.
Notable kilometers: Sinclaire Johnson of the U.S. ran the fastest 1,000 meters of her career when she won the event in 2:35.11 in the Washington Indoor Preview meet in Seattle last Friday.
The 26-year-old Johnson, who had finished fourth in the 1,500 in last year’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials, moved to sixth on the all-time national indoor performer — under any conditions — with her clocking while running on the 307-meter oval at the Dempsey Indoor facility.
While the results from the meet did not list splits for the competitors at 200, 400, 600, and 800 meters, Johnson’s effort turned back second-place Gabija Galvydte of Lithuania, who ran 2:35.70, and third-place Laura Pellicoro of Portland University, who timed 2:37.04.
Galvydte’s mark was the fastest ever run by a Lithuanian woman indoors and Pellicoro’s time was the best ever by an Italian, as well as the quickest ever run by a collegian on any size indoor track.
Notable 600: Sinclaire Johnson wasn’t the only American who turned in a noteworthy performance in a middle-distance event in the Washington Indoor Preview meet as junior Roisin Willis of Stanford University won the women’s 600 meters in 1:25.74.
Pushing the pace from the start of the race, Willis finished well in front of runner-up Shaquena Foote of San Diego State, who timed 1:30.28. Cate Peters of Stanford finished third in 1:31.52.
Willis’ effort was the second-fastest ever run a collegian, but it will not be included on the all-time collegiate list because she ran it on the 307-meter oval at the Dempsey Indoor facility, which has wider turns than the typical 200-meter indoor track.
The collegiate record of 1:25.16 in the 600 was set by Britton Wilson of Arkansas, who produced that mark in 2023 while running on the 200-meter oval at the Randal Tyson Indoor Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Leader of the pack: Junior Nathan Green of the University of Washington took full advantage of the 307-meter track at the Dempsey Indoor facility last Saturday when he clocked 3:50.74 in winning the fifth heat of the men’s mile in the Washington Mile City meet in Seattle.
Green’s time was the fourth-fastest ever run by a collegian indoors, but it will not be included on the all-time collegiate list that only includes performances produced on 200-meter tracks that have tighter — albeit banked — turns.
Sam Prakel of the U.S. finished second in 3:51.28 and junior Ronan McMahon-Staggs of Washington and Ireland placed third in 3:51.85.
American Kenneth Rooks, the silver medalist in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in the Olympic Games, finished sixth in 3:58.09.
Green, who was one of nine Washington runners who ran under four minutes for the mile in Saturday’s meet, is coming off a year in which he finished 10th in the 1,500 in the NCAA outdoor championships — after winning the event in 2023 — before lowering his personal best to 3:32.20 while placing fifth in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials.
Quality start: Kishane Thompson of Jamaica, the silver medalist in the men’s 100 meters in the Olympic Games, posted a winning time of 6.48 seconds in the 60-meter dash in an outdoor meet in Spanish Town, Jamaica, last Saturday.
Thompson’s time bettered his personal best of 6.67 from 2022, the last time he had raced over 60 meters, and it came while he was running into a breeze of 2.1 meters per second.
Prior to Saturday, Thompson’s last individual race had come in the Olympic final, when he and gold medalist Noah Lyles of the U.S. had each been credited with times of 9.79, although the American had run five thousandths of a second faster that the Jamaican.
Two liners: Malika Mihambo of Germany, the silver medalist in the women’s long jump in last year’s Olympic Games in Paris, opened up her indoor season with a winning leap of 6.79 meters (22 feet 3½ inches) in the Sparkasen Indoor meeting in Dortmund, Germany, last Saturday. Mihambo was the gold medalist in the Olympics in 2021 and in the World Athletics Championships in 2022. . . . . Yemisi Ogunleye of Germany, the Olympic champion in the women’s shot put, opened her indoor season with a winning put of 18.98 (62-3¼) in the Sparkasen Indoor meeting. Ogunleye had placed second in last year’s World Athletics Indoor Championships with a personal best of 20.19 (66-3) before winning the Olympic title with a sixth-round effort of 20.00 (65-7½). . . . . Senior Chloe Timberg of Rutgers University, the defending NCAA outdoor champion in the women’s pole vault, cleared 4.50 (14-9) in winning that event in the Quaker Invitational in Philadelphia last Saturday. Timberg made 4.15 (13-7¼) and 4.35 (14-3¼) on her first attempts before clearing 4.50 on her second try and missing three times at 4.61 (15-1½).
American records in H-Town: Ethiopians Addisu Gobena and Senayet Getachew won the men’s and women’s titles, respectively, in the Houston Half Marathon, on Sunday while pulling Americans Conner Mantz and Weini Kelati to national-record efforts.
The 20-year-old Gobena set a course record of 59:17 while edging Mantz (59:17) by the slimmest of margins in a race in which Gabriel Geay of Tanzania placed third in 59:18 and Jemal Yimer of Ethiopia finished fourth in 59:20.
Getachew, 19, won the women’s race in 66:05 after breaking away from Kelati with about two kilometers to go and the American finished second in 66:09 after battling stomach issues for much of the race.
Buze Diraba of Ethiopia placed third in 66:48, followed by American Amanda Vestri in 67:35.
Pacesetter Amon Kemboi of Kenya led the men through the first three kilometers in a brisk 8:30 before he passed the five- and 10-kilometer marks in 14:02 and 28:01, respectively.
The lead pack consisted of Gobena, Mantz, Geay, and Yimer at that point in the race and they were still together when they passed 15 kilometers in 42:05 after running the previous 5,000 meters in 14:04.
The projected winning time was 59:11 based on the split for 15k, but much of the next five kilometers was run into a chilly breeze and the leading foursome came through 20 kilometers in 56:23 after running the preceding 5k in 14:18.
With the finish line drawing near, Gobena opened up a small advantage of his three closest competitors, but Mantz began to reel him in during the final 50 meters of the contest before falling just short of catching him.
While the 59:17 clockings by Gobena and Mantz bettered the course record of 59:22 set by Ethiopian Feyisa Lilesia in 2012, Mantz’ effort slashed 26 seconds off the U.S. record of 59:43 set by Ryan Hall in the 2007 Houston Half Marathon.
The women’s race was a three-runner battle for first place for much of the way on Sunday as pacesetter Abraham Tesfamariam of Ethiopia passed through five kilometers in 15:30 and 10 kilometers in 30:50.
Getachew, Kelati, and Diriba were running closely behind Tesfamariam at that point in the race and they were still tightly bunched in back of him when he passed 15 kilometers in 46:32 after running the previous 5k in 15:42.
But the pace began to slow after that as the runners dealt with a stiff breeze.
Diraba was the first of the lead trio to fall back and Getachew made a move at the 19-kilometer mark to which Kelati had no response.
As a result, Getachew had a five-second lead over Kelati when she came through 20 kilometers in 62:38 and she maintained most of her advantage for the remainder of the race as her 66:05 clocking crushed her previous best of 68:37 that she had run in a winning effort in Porto, Portugal, in 2022.
Kelati’s time bettered the U.S. record of 66:25 that she had set while finishing fourth in the Houston Half Marathon last year.
Add Houston: While the results of the Houston Half Marathon garnered most of the attention during Sunday’s event, Haimro Alame of Israel and Sichala Kumeshi of Ethiopia won the men’s and women’s marathon races, respectively.
Alame, 34, ran 2:08:17 after having finished 16th in 2:07:10 in the Berlin Marathon last September.
He was followed by Yemane Haileselassie of Ethiopia in 2:08:25 and Shadrack Kimining of Kenya in 2:08:29.
The 29-year-old Kumeshi ran 2:20:42 to win the women’s division and crush her personal best of 2:25:25 that she set while finishing second in the Gold Coast Marathon in Australia last July.
Erika Kemp of the U.S. finished second in 2:22:56 while running 11 minutes faster than she had in her marathon debut in the Boston race in 2023 and Tsige Haileslase of Ethiopia placed third in 2:25:09.
Looking forward: The three fastest women marathon runners in history, as well as the runner with the fastest time ever in a women’s only race, are scheduled to meet in the London Marathon on April 27.
Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya, Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia, Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, and Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya topped the list of entrants in the women’s race that was announced last week by the London Marathon.
Chepngetich cut nearly two minutes off the world record when she ran 2 hours 9 minutes 56 seconds in winning the women’s division of the Chicago Marathon last October after having finished ninth in the London Marathon.
Assefa had set the previous world record of 2:11:53 in the Berlin Marathon in 2023 before she finished second in the both the London Marathon and Olympic Games last year.
Hassan set her personal best of 2:13:44 in winning the Chicago Marathon in 2023 and she won the Olympic title in Paris last July when she outkicked Assefa. She preceded that victory with bronze-medal winning performances in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters.
Defending Olympic champion Jepchirchir finished a disappointing 15th in the women’s marathon in Paris, but she was victorious in London last year while setting a personal best of 2:16:16, the fastest time ever in a women’s only race.
Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya and Megertu Alemu of Ethiopia are two other entrants who have run under 2:17:00.
Jepkosgei clocked 2:16:24 while finishing third in London last year and Alemu was fourth in 2:16:34.
The Ethiopian dropped out of the marathon in the Olympic Games, but she ran 2:16:49 to win the Valencia Marathon in Spain in December.
Looking forward II: Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia, Sabastian Sawe of Kenya, and Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands are three of the leading entrants in the men’s race of the London Marathon that will be held on April 27.
Tola set an Olympic record of 2:06:26 in winning the gold medal in the Games of Paris that were contested over an extremely challenging course before finishing fourth in the New York City Marathon in November.
Sawe ran a sensational 2:02:05 while winning his debut marathon in Valencia, Spain, in December.
Nageeye dropped out of the marathon in the Olympics, but he bounced back to win the New York City Marathon in 2:07:39 after having set a Dutch record of 2:04:45 in winning the Rotterdam Marathon in April.
Some of the other top entrants are Kenyans Eliud Kipchoge, Timothy Kiplangat, and Alexander Mutiso, and Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo.
Kipchoge, who is regarded as the greatest marathon runner of all time, won Olympic titles in 2016 and ’21, has set two world records during his career, and is the second-fastest performer in history with his best of 2:01:09 from 2022. However, the 40-year-old dropped out of the Olympic Games after he had finished 10th in the Tokyo Marathon in March of last year.
Kiplangat ran a personal best of 2:02:55 to place second in Tokyo, but he finished fourth in 2:06:43 in the Shanghai Marathon in December.
Mutiso won last year’s London Marathon in 2:04:01, but he finished 21st in the Olympics.
Kiplimo, the two-time defending World Athletics Cross Country champion, will be making his marathon debut in London. However, he is an immensely talented runner who has clocked 12:40.96 for 5,000 meters, 26:33.93 for 10,000, and 57:31 in the half marathon.