Solomon Kirwa Yego (born 1987) is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes mainly in

road running Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road. This differs from track and field on a regular track and cross country running over natural terrain. These events are usually classified as long-distance ...

competitions. His

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcut ...

best of 58:44 minutes makes him the ninth fastest man ever for the distance. Yego has won the Roma-Ostia Half Marathon and the

Udine Half Marathon The Udine Half Marathon ( it, Maratonina Udine) is an annual road running event over the half marathon distance (21.1 km/13.1 mi) which takes place in late September in Udine, Italy. The competition is organised by the Associazione Marat ...

. He represented Kenya at the

2014 African Cross Country Championships The 2014 African Cross Country Championships was the third edition of the international cross country running competition for African athletes organised by the Confederation of African Athletics. It was held on 16 March at the Kololo Golf Course in ...

and won a team gold medal.

Career

Yego began competing in

s in Italy in 2010, taking top three finishes at a variety of lower level races. He won the Collemar and Castellana Marathons in 2011, setting a best of 2:17:47 hours at the latter. He demonstrated his move into world class distance running in the 2012 season with a run of 61:49 minutes to win the Ferrara Half Marathon. Later in the year he won the Europa Half Marathon then won the Borghi and Cremona Half Marathon, improving his time to 61:34 minutes in the process.Solomon Kirwa Yego
Association of Road Racing Statisticians. Retrieved on 2016-04-08. He began to near the global top 100 runners that season. He missed most of the 2013 season, but managed a runner-up finish at the high level

Route du Vin Half Marathon The ING Route du Vin Half Marathon (french: ING Route du Vin Semi-Marathon) is an annual road running competition over the half marathon distance (21.1 km/13.1 mi) which takes place in late September in Remich, Luxembourg. It is organised ...

. A fifth-place finish at the Kenyan Cross Country Championships in 2014 led to his first international selection, for the

. His fourth-place finish helped the Kenyan men to the team title with a clean sweep. He took part in French road races that year, coming in the top five at the Le Lion Half Marathon and the

Marseille-Cassis Classique Internationale The Marseille-Cassis Classique Internationale is an annual half marathon which follows a course from Marseille to Cassis in France during the last weekend in October. It has the silver label of the IAAF Road Race Label Events and is thus among the ...

. Yego continued his gradual improvement into 2015. He won the

Lago Maggiore Half Marathon __NOTOC__ Lago, which means "lake" in Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Galician, may refer to: Places *Lago, Calabria, a ''comune'' in the Province of Cosenza, Italy *Lago, Mexico, a municipality zone in the State of Mexico *Lago District, a ''dis ...

in a best of 60:47 minutes at the start of the year then won the

in 60:04 minutes in September. He ended the year with a second career win in Cremona. He placed 32nd on the seasonal world lists for the half marathon. He broke into the world's best ever at the 2016 Roma-Ostia Half Marathon, recording a time of 58:44 minutes to become the third fastest man for the half marathon, with only world record holder

Zersenay Tadese Zersenay Tadese (Tigrinya: ዘርእሰናይ ታደሰ; born 8 February 1982) is an Eritrean long-distance track and road running athlete. He held the men's half marathon world record from 2010 to 2018. His bronze medal in the 10,000 metres ...

and former Olympic champion

Samuel Wanjiru Samuel Kamau Wanjiru (10 November 1986 – 15 May 2011) was a Kenyan long-distance runner who won the 2008 Beijing Olympics Marathon in an Olympic record time of 2:06:32; becoming the first Kenyan to win the Olympic gold in the marathon. He beca ...

having run faster. The run bettered former world champion

Wilson Kiprop Wilson Kiprop (born 14 April 1987 in Soi, Uasin Gishu District) is a Kenyan long-distance runner, who specialises in the 10,000 metres and half marathon. He was the world champion at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in 2010 and was th ...

's course record by over half a minute.

International competitions

Circuit wins

* Roma-Ostia Half Marathon: 2016 *

: 2015 *

: 2015 * Cremona Half Marathon: 2012, 2015

Personal bests

* 5000 metres – 14:14.54 min (2012) *

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The ra ...

– 28:23.0 min (2015) *

10K run 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

– 29:06 min (2015) *

Half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcut ...

– 58:44 min (2016) * Marathon – 2:08:31 (2016) Info from All-AthleticsSolomon Kirwa Yego
All-Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-04-08.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yego, Solomon Kirwa Living people 1987 births Kenyan male long-distance runners Kenyan male marathon runners