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Up until the end of 1987, Paul Ereng had been a promising 400m runner
with a personal best time of 45.6sec. He only took up the 800m in early
1988, after enrolling at the University of Virginia, but with such
phenomenal success, that by the end of the year he was the Olympic 800m
champion. Ereng started winning races from the outset, and he was
undefeated during the USA outdoor season in early 1988. He then
travelled to Europe, where, against stiffer opposition, he did not fare
as well, although he managed to lower his personal best to 1min
44.82sec. In the Kenyan Olympic trials on 13 August, Ereng just made
the Olympic team, finishing third just centimetres in front of Sammy
Koskei.
Despite his rapid development in the event, Ereng didn't have
the form of a potential gold medalist when he arrived at the Olympic
Games in Seoul. However, people started to rate his chances more
seriously after he won his semi-final in a personal best of 1min
44.55sec. In the final on 26 September, Ereng (see photo above)
was fourth as they entered the straight, but he then surged past the
three runners in front of him to win the gold medal in another personal
best of 1min 43.45sec. At the World Indoor Championships in Budapest the
following March, Ereng produced a devastating finish to win the gold
medal in a new world indoor record of 1min 44.84sec. In the 1989
outdoor season, Paul lost only one of his 15 races, and set the year's
fastest time of 1min 43.16sec at Zurich on 16 August.
In 1991, Ereng
retained his world indoor title at Seville in March, but was only 4th in
the World Championships at Tokyo in August. Ereng never posed a
serious threat in major international championships after that, and he
was eliminated in the semi-finals at the 1992 Olympic Games. (Ron Casey)
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