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Journalism of Courage
RIETI (ITALY), SEPT 5: Kenyan star Noah Ngeny broke the longest standing men’s track World record, the 1000m, here today by running a time of 2 minutes 11.96 seconds.
The 20-year-old, who took 1500m silver at last month’s World championships, broke Sebastian Coe’s mark of 2:12.18 set in Oslo in 1981 — the last World record belonging to the Briton.
Ngeny, who had gone desperately close to breaking Coe’s record in Nice back in July, was given a superb lead by Kenyan pacemaker David Kiptoo before he dropped out with 300m to go.
Ngeny, who had failed in attempts on the 1500 and mile records held by arch-rival Hicham El Guerrouj earlier in the season, then sped away to ease inside the record with more than a two-second gap.
Ngeny’s performance rounded off a remarkable 18 months in which the man, who only took up running two years ago, has gone from being a pacemaker to World silver medallist and now a World record holder.
