Elijah Kiptarbei Lagat (born 19 June 1966) was the winner of the 104th running of the

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by eight cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was ins ...

held in 2000. He won in the closest finish in the race's history when he edged out

Gezahegne Abera Gezahegne Abera (Amharic: ገዛኸኝ አበራ; born April 23, 1978) is an Ethiopian athlete and winner of the marathon race at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Born in Etya, Arsi Province, Gezahegne's first international competition was ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

and fellow

Kenyan The Demographics of Kenya is monitored by the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics. Kenya is a multi-ethnic state in East Africa. Its total population was at 47,558,296 as of the 2019 census. A national census was conducted in 1999, although t ...

and previous year's champion,

Moses Tanui Moses Tanui (born 20 August 1965 in Sugoi, Nandi District, Kenya) is a former Kenyan long-distance runner who won the gold medal over 10,000 metres at the 1991 World Championships in Athletics in Tokyo. Biography At the 1993 World Championships ...

. Abera and Lagat were both clocked at 2 hours 9 minutes and 47 seconds while Tanui finished three seconds back. Lagat's win enabled the Kenyans to capture the individual men's Boston Marathon title for the 10th straight year. This is a record that still stands.

Early life

Lagat was born and raised in Saniak, Kenya in the

Nandi District Nandi District was an administrative district in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya. Its capital town was Kapsabet. Following the transfer of some of territory from Uganda to British East Africa, Nandi District was a subdivision of Kisumu Provinc ...

2000 Sydney Olympics Marathon Controversy

Lagat's win in the Boston Marathon initially gave him a spot on Kenya's marathon team in the 2000 Olympics. Lagat indicated his enthusiasm for running in the Olympics immediately after Boston. However, later in the year the director of the Kenyan Amateur Athletics Association, David Okeyo, replaced the three runners who had initially made the team (Lagat, Tanui and

Japhet Kosgei Japhet Kosgei (born 20 December 1968) is a retired long-distance runner from Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is ...

) with three other Kenyans Ondoro Osoro,

Erick Wainaina Erick Wainaina (born December 19, 1973, in Nyahururu) is a Kenyan marathon runner, who won an Olympic bronze medal in 1996 and a silver medal in 2000. He finished seventh in the 2004 Summer Olympics marathon in Athens, making him one of the few ...

and

Kenneth Cheruiyot Kenneth Cheruiyot (born August 2, 1974) is an athlete from Kenya who specialises in long-distance running. He is most famous for winning the Rotterdam Marathon in 2000. He finished second in the event in 2001 and 2002. In 2002 he fell to the ground ...

. He claimed that the three who had initially made the team had not been training hard enough. This move may have been precipitated by poor Kenyan showings in the Olympic marathons in the past. It also may have been brought about by the three initial qualifiers' criticism of the Kenyan Amateur Athletics Association officials. Despite Kenya's many successes in marathoning, they were unable to secure an Olympic gold medal until Samuel Wanjiru's record setting run in the 2008 Beijing games. Later in the summer of 2000 however, Osoro was shot in a carjacking incident. Lagat found his way back onto the team as a replacement after being clearly miffed by what he called a strange dismissal from the team. When the

Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

finally came about, Lagat was on the team and started the race but did not finish. He blamed his failure to finish on excessive preparation for the Olympic marathon; he claimed he wanted to show the Kenyan athletics officials he really could win but overtrained as a result.

Motivation

Lagat began running simply to lose weight and not necessarily to compete at the highest level of the sport. As a young man, a physician told him that he "had a lot of fat around his heart" and needed to lose weight. He obliged and his weight decreased from 158 pounds in 1992 to 125 by the time he won the Boston Marathon. He started jogging in 1993 and began competing in 1994. He was already 27 when he first began competing; his late start in the sport is unusual and a testament to his innate talent. Before running, Lagat worked as an educational administrator before switching to full-time athlete.

Other victories

Lagat won the

Prague Marathon The Prague Marathon (also known as Prague International Marathon) is an annual road marathon held in the city of Prague in the Czech Republic each May. It was founded in 1995 and has grown to become a significant event, being awarded IAAF G ...

in 1998 and the

Berlin Marathon The Berlin Marathon (, ) is a marathon event held annually on the streets of Berlin, Germany on the last weekend of September. Held annually since 1974, the event includes multiple races over the marathon distance of , including elite level road r ...

in 1997. His best time was a 2:07:41 during his win in Berlin. He tried to defend his Boston title in 2001 but finished 17th with a time of 2:17:59 that year. He has not competed at the same level since then.

Politics

Prior to the 2002 general elections, Lagat was persuaded by his friends to vie for the Emgwen Constituency parliamentary seats. After initial resistance, Lagat agreed and vied for the seat on KANU ticket. He lost, however, to Stephen Kipkiyeny Tarus who represented the victorious NARC coalition. After the elections, Lagat continued his athletics career. At the 2007 parliamentary elections, Lagat successfully vied for Emgwen Constituency parliamentary seat on ODM ticket, beating Tarus, who now represented the PNU party.

Education

He has a degree in history from University of Eastern Africa, Baraton, and a degree for an MBA in Strategic Management at

Africa Nazarene University Africa Nazarene University is a private Christian-founded university in, Kenya, and an affiliate of ''The Church of the Nazarene Colleges and Universities'' around the world. Africa Nazarene University is fully accredited by the Commission for Un ...

Personal life

Lagat is a member of the

Seventh-day Adventist Church The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sa ...

Achievements

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lagat, Elijah 1966 births Living people Kenyan male long-distance runners Kenyan male marathon runners Kenyan sportsperson-politicians Kenyan Seventh-day Adventists Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Kenya Kenya African National Union politicians Orange Democratic Movement politicians Members of the National Assembly (Kenya) Boston Marathon male winners Berlin Marathon male winners Africa Nazarene University alumni Athletes from Nandi County 20th-century Kenyan sportsmen