File:Samuel_Wanjiru2008_Summer_Olympics2.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
OverviewAI-generated
Samuel Kamau Wanjiru was a Kenyan male long-distance runner and athletics competitor. Born in Nyahururu in 1986, he represented Kenya in the sport of athletics, specifically competing in the marathon discipline. His professional career as a runner began in 2002 and concluded in 2011.
Wanjiru participated in the 2008 Summer Olympics. He spoke English and died in his birthplace of Nyahururu on May 15, 2011.
Synthesized by Vinony from 21 facts across 2 sources: Wikidata, Thesportsdb. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Kenyan
- Born
- ( 1986-11-10 ) 10 November 1986, Nyahururu , Kenya
- Died
- 15 May 2011 (2011-05-15) (aged 24), Nyahururu, Kenya
- Height
- 1.63 m (5 ft 4 in)
- Weight
- 52 kg (115 lb)
- Sport
- Running
- Event s
- Half marathon , marathon
- Personal bests
- 5000 m : 13:12.40 ( Hiroshima 2005) 10,000 m : 26:41.75 ( Brussels 2005) Half marathon : 58:33 ( The Hague 2007) Marathon : 2:05:10 ( London 2009) Olympic Marathon : 2:06:32 ( Beijing 2008)
via Wikipedia infobox
Sports profile
- Sport
- Athletics
- Position
- Long Distance Runner
- Nationality
- Kenya
via TheSportsDB
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Samuel
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Kenya
- Place of birth
- Nyahururu
- Place of death
- Nyahururu
- Occupation
- marathon runner
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Participant in
- 2008 Summer Olympics
- Sport
- athletics
- Country for sport
- Kenya
- Mass
- 51
- Image
- SamuelWanjiru.jpg
- Height
- 163
Show 7 more facts
- Commons category
- Samuel Wanjiru
- date of birth
- 1986-11-10
- date of death
- 2011-05-15
- sports discipline competed in
- marathon
- name in native language
- Samuel Kamau Wanjiru
- start of work period
- 2002-00-00
- end of work period
- 2011-00-00
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Samuel Kamau Wanjirū (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 became the youngest gold medallist in the marathon since 1932.
He held the 10,000m U20 World Record from 2005 until 2024 and set the half marathon world record 3 times. In 2009, he won both the London Marathon and Chicago Marathon, running the fastest marathons ever recorded in the United Kingdom and United States, respectively. He retained his Chicago title in 2010 in a season fraught with injury.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Samuel Wanjiru” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.