He moved to the full marathon and won the event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in an Olympic record time of 2:06:32; becoming the first Kenyan to win the Olympic gold in the marathon. The following year, he won both the London Marathon and Chicago Marathon, running the fastest marathons ever recorded in the United Kingdom and United States, respectively. He retained his Chicago title in 2010 in a season fraught with injury.
In 2011, he died after falling off a balcony at his home in Nyahururu following a domestic dispute. Police are still uncertain as to whether his death was a suicide, homicide, or accidental.
(10 November 1986 – 15 May 2011)
Running career
Early career
Wanjiru started running at the age of 15. In 2002, he moved to Japan and went to Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School in Sendai. He had success on the Japanese cross country circuit, where he won the Fukuoka International Cross Country at sixteen years old in 2003. He went on to win in both Fukuoka and at the Chiba International Cross Country consecutively in 2004 and 2005.[3] After graduating in 2005, he joined the Toyota Kyūshū athletics team, coached by 1992 Olympic marathon silver medalist Koichi Morishita.[4]Wanjiru had a 5000 metres best of 13:12.40, run as a 17-year-old in April 2004 in Hiroshima, Japan. At the age of only 18, Wanjiru broke the half marathon world record on 11 September 2005 in the Rotterdam Half Marathon with a time of 59:16 minutes, officially beating Paul Tergat's half-marathon record of 59:17 minutes. This was preceded two weeks earlier by a bettering of the 10,000 meter world junior record by a margin of almost 23 seconds in the IAAF Golden League Van Damme Memorial Race on 26 August. His WJR time of 26:41.75 was good enough for third place in the race behind Kenenisa Bekele's world record of 26:17.53 and Boniface Kiprop's 26:39.77. It was Kiprop who held the previous world junior mark (27:04.00 minutes), set at the same meeting the previous year.[5]
World records and Olympic gold
Wanjiru took back the half marathon world record, which Haile Gebrselassie broke in early 2006, with 58:53 minutes on 9 February 2007 at the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon[6] and improved it to 58:33 on 17 March 2007 in the City-Pier-City Loop in The Hague, The Netherlands. While improving his own record, he recorded an unofficial time of 55:31 for 20 kilometres (12 mi), which was faster than Haile Gebrselassie's world record but was never ratified due to the timing methods in the race.[7]Wanjiru approaching the finishing line at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Wanjiru made his marathon debut at Fukuoka Marathon on 2 December 2007, winning it impressively with a course record of 2:06:39.[8] He started 2008 by winning the Zayed International Half Marathon and receiving a prize of US $300,000.[9] In the 2008 London Marathon, he came in second, breaking 2:06 for the first time. In the 2008 Summer Olympics, Wanjiru won the marathon gold medal in an Olympic record time of 2:06:32, smashing the previous record of 2:09:21 set by Carlos Lopes of Portugal in the 1984 Olympics.[10] He received the AIMS World Athlete of the Year Award that year in recognition of his performances.[11][edit] London and Chicago wins
At the Granollers Half Marathon in February 2008, in which Wanjiru won, the Kenyan stated his intent for the future, saying, "in five years' time I feel capable of clocking a sub 2 hours time for the marathon."[12] In April 2009, Wanjiru won the London Marathon in a time of 2:05:10, a new personal record and also a new course record. He was pleased with the achievement and stated that he hoped to break Haile Gebrselassie's world record in the near future.[13] At the Rotterdam Half Marathon, Wanjiru clocked a 1:01:08 on 13 September, which was won by Sammy Kitwara with a time of 58:58.[14] In October 2009, Wanjiru won the Chicago Marathon in a time of 2:05:41, setting a new course record for the city and the fastest marathon time ever run in the United States.[15] The wins in London and Chicago helped him reach the top of the World Marathon Majors rankings for 2009, earning him a jackpot of US$500,000.[16]He signed up to defend his title at the 2010 London Marathon, but he encountered knee trouble at the midway point of the race and decided to drop out to avoid further injury – the first time in six marathons that he had failed to finish.[17] He chose to run at the 2010 Chicago Marathon in October, but a stomach virus before the race had harmed his preparations and he entered the competition with the lesser aim of reaching the top three. Tsegaye Kebede took the opportunity to forge a lead, but Wanjiru (despite a lack of peak physical form) persevered with the pace and caught up with the Ethiopian. He took the lead in the final 400 m to defend his title in Chicago with a time of 2:06:24. "It was the greatest surprise I have ever seen in my life", remarked his coach, Federico Rosa, on the performance.[18][19]
Personal life
Wanjiru was arrested by Kenyan police at his house in Nyahururu in December 2010 and charged with threatening to kill his wife and illegally possessing an AK-47 rifle. He denied both the accusations and claimed that he was being framed.[20][21]Wanjiru's cousin Joseph Riri is a world-class marathon runner,[22] and Wanjiru's younger brother Simon Njoroge is also a long distance runner.[citation needed]
Death
On 15 May 2011, Wanjiru died from a fall off a balcony at his home in Nyahururu, a town in the Rift Valley, about 150 kilometres (93 mi) northwest of the capital, Nairobi.[1] Wanjiru appeared to have suffered internal injuries after the fall and was confirmed dead by doctors at a nearby hospital after attempts to revive him failed.[2]Police said Wanjiru's wife, Triza Njeri, had come home to find him in bed with another woman. She locked the couple in the bedroom and ran outside. Wanjiru then leapt from the balcony.[1] Police are unsure if Wanjiru intended suicide or jumped out of rage, and are investigating the circumstances related to Njeri and his female companion that led to his death.[1][23]
Achievements
Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Notes |
Representing KEN | |||||
2007 | Ras Al Khaimah, UAE | 1st | Half marathon | 58:53 = WR | |
1st | Marathon | 2:06:39 | |||
2008 | Bejing, China | 1st | Marathon | 2:06:32 = OR | |
2009 | London, United Kingdom | 1st | Marathon | 2:05:10 | |
Chicago, United States | 1st | Marathon | 2:05:41 | ||
2010 | Chicago, United States | 1st | Marathon | 2:06:23 | |
Awards
- 2005 Kenyan Most Promising Sportsman of the Year award.[24]
- 2008 Kenyan Sportsman of the Year Award.[25]
Personal bests
Samuel Wanjiru, breaking a world record in the 2007 Fortis City-Pier-City Half Marathon
Event | Time | Date | Location |
13:12.40 | 29 April 2005 | ||
26:41.75† | 26 August 2005 | ||
55:31‡ | 17 March 2007 | ||
58:33 | 17 March 2007 | ||
2:05:10 | 26 April 2009 | London |
Mahendra Singh Tikait, 76, Indian farming union leader, bone cancer.
Mahendra Singh Tikait was a noted Indian leader of farmers from western Uttar Pradesh state. He was born in 1935 at village Sisauli in Muzaffarnagar District of Uttar Pradesh. He was the President of the 'Bharatiya Kisan Union'. Tikait died in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh on 15 May 2011 due to protracted illness from bone cancer at the age of 76. He was a Jat of Raghuvanshi gotra and Choudhary of Balyan Khap.(6 October 1935–15 May 2011)
Biography
Leader of farmers and peasants
Tikait was a leader of farmers and President of the Bharatiya Kisan Union. He led a number of mass Kisan movements against the state and central governments in India to support the rights of the farmers. He led many international delegations with him around the globe. The character of Kisan movements since the 1970s has been a matter of considerable debate. Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) worked in close cooperation with international organizations like La Via Campesina, Farmers Coordination Committee India etc.The BKU received national attention in 1988, when its supporters organised a virtual siege in Meerut in pursuit of higher prices for Sugarcane, cancellation of loans and lowering of water and electricity rates.
In 2006, around one lakh (100,000) farmers gathered in Mumbai during heavy rains to protest against Government's WTO and anti-farmers policies.A memorandum addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was released urging to keep agriculture out of WTO. Mahendra Singh Tikait, president of BKU said " It does not matter how much it rains here. We will not stop our fight. The Government will have to hear us. We need a change of Policies".
Rise of Bhartiya Kisan Union
Poverty and Lack of Political power was a constant theme in the discourse of Tikait, the leader of Kisan Union. After the death of former Prime Minister of India late Ch.Charan Singh(1979–80)in western U.P. was called the second 'Maseeha'or The Savior of farmers. On 17 October 1986 he formed a non-political organization named 'Bhartiya Kisan Union(BKU)' to protect the interests of all the farmers of India, who form an overwhelming majority in the population of the country.One journalist asked him "Whether the Kisan Union also represnted the land-less labourers, Tikait attempted to side-step the question by saying "There is no Mazdoor(Labourers) as such. We are all labourers...Some are big labourers, some are small...Who is the rich farmer? There is no rich farmer.The house we are sitting in belongs to a farmer who is considered the third richest in this village of 20,000 people.And yet he does not have even 18 acres (73,000 m2) of land-the ceiling".[1]
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