|
Moses Kiptanui had an exceptional year in 1992, again dominating the
3000m steeplechase event as he had done the previous year. He got the
year off to a great start by breaking the world indoor 3000m record,
setting a new time of 7min 37.31sec at Seville on 20 February.
Unfortunately, he missed selection to the Olympic Games that year due to
injury at the Kenyan trials, but his distance running feats immediately
following the Olympics proved that he would have been a force to be
reckoned with at Barcelona if he had been able to compete. Firstly at
Cologne, on 16 August, Kiptanui broke the 3000m world record, setting a
new time of 7min 28.96sec.
Only three days later, at the Weltklasse
meet in Zurich, Kiptanui thrashed a world-class steeplechase field that
included the first six finishers in the Olympic final held only 12 days
earlier. Kiptanui's time of 8min 02.08sec was not only over 9 seconds
faster than that of his nearest rival, but it also broke the existing
world record by over 3 seconds. He followed this performance with a
sensational debut at 5000m in Brussels on 28 August, where he won in
13min 00.93sec, which made him the third fastest performer in history at
that distance. He also improved his 1500m best to 3min 34.0sec, when
winning the Kenyan national championships on 13 June.
In 1993, Kiptanui
was not quite as dominant as he had been the previous year, but he
still managed to retain his World Championships steeplechase title at
Stuttgart, in a very fast race that saw, for the first time, the first
five finishers under 8min 10sec. Kiptanui (No 784 in photo above) led from the 1000m mark, and easily held off the challenge from compatriot Patrick Sang (No 795 in photo above) on the last lap to win in 8min 06.36sec. (Ron Casey)
|