The Kenya national athletics team represents Kenya at the international athletics competitions such as Olympic Games or World Athletics Championships. [1]
Kenya has participated in 14 of the 28 editions of the Summer Olympic Games from 1896 to 2016. [2]
Competition | Medal table | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tot. | Rank | ||||
Summer Olympics | 30 | 37 | 27 | 94 | 6 |
World Championships | 55 | 48 | 37 | 140 | 2 |
Total | 85 | 85 | 64 | 234 |
The World Athletics Championships are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics. Alongside the Olympic Games, they represent the highest level championships of senior international outdoor athletics competition for track and field athletics globally, including marathon running and race walking. Separate World Championships are held by World Athletics for certain other outdoor events, including cross-country running and half-marathon, as well as indoor and age-group championships.
Moses Kiptanui is a Kenyan middle and long distance athlete mostly famous for 3,000 m steeplechase in which he was the number one ranked athlete from 1991 to 1995 and three time IAAF World Champion. Kiptanui was also the first man ever to run 3000m steeplechase in under eight minutes.He's also known for his coaching role in his later years with Tarbert GAA.
Bernard Kipchirchir Lagat is a Kenyan-American middle and long-distance runner.
Meseret Defar Tola is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who competes chiefly in the 3000 metres and 5000 metres events. She has won medals at top-tier international competitions including Olympic and World Championship gold medals over 5000 metres. She broke the world record in the event in 2006, broke it again in 2007 and held it until 2008, when fellow Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba beat her time.
Ezekiel Kemboi Cheboi is a Kenyan professional athlete, winner of the 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2004 Summer Olympics, the 2009 World Championships, the 2011 World Championships, the 2012 Summer Olympics, the 2013 World Championships and the 2015 World Championships. His 3000 m steeplechase best of 7:55.76 set at Monaco in 2011 places him as the sixth fastest of all time. This time is also the fastest non-winning time in history. He is one of only four men to have won both Olympic and World golds in the event, along with Reuben Kosgei, Brimin Kipruto and Conseslus Kipruto. He is the only multiple gold medalist in both. He is the only athlete to have won four world championships in the steeplechase, and only the second athlete to win two Olympic titles in the event.
Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot is a Kenyan long-distance runner. She represented Kenya at the Summer Olympics in 2000, 2008, 2012, and 2016, winning the silver medal in the 5000 metres and bronze in the 10,000 metres at the 2012 London Olympics as well as gold in the 5000 m and silver in the 10,000 m at the 2016 Rio Olympics, setting a new Olympic record in the former. Cheruiyot won the silver medal in the 5000 m at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics and became the world champion in the event at the 2009 edition, repeating this achievement in 2011, when she also won the 10000 m. She added gold for the latter event at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics. After taking a silver in the 3000 metres at the 2010 World Indoor Championships, Cheruiyot won a number of outdoor 5000 m titles that year, becoming Commonwealth Games, African and Continental Cup champion, as well as winning the Diamond League title.
Nancy Jebet Langat is a Kenyan middle distance, runner who specialises in the 1500 metres. She won the gold medal in the 1500 m at the 2008 Summer Olympics, in a personal best time of 4:00.23.
Asbel Kipruto Kiprop is a Kenyan middle-distance runner, who specialises in the 1500 metres. He was awarded the 1500 m gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics after the original winner, Rashid Ramzi, tested positive for doping. Kiprop has won three World Championship titles in the event, in 2011, 2013 and 2015. Kiprop failed his own doping test in November 2017 and received a four-year doping ban.
David Lekuta Rudisha, MBS is a Kenyan middle-distance runner who specialized in the 800 metres. He is a two-time back-to-back Olympic champion from the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympics, a two-time World champion from the 2011 and 2015 World Championships in Athletics, and world record holder at the event with a time of 1:40.91 set at the 2012 London Games on 9 August 2012. Rudisha is the first and only person to ever run 800 metres under 1:41, and he holds the three fastest, six of the eight fastest, and half of the twenty fastest times ever run in this event.
Mark Kosgey Kiptoo is a Kenyan long-distance runner who set the world record in the marathon for the Masters age group by running 2:07:50 in the 2018 Frankfurt Marathon. He also specialized in the 5000 metres throughout his career. He is a two-time gold medalist in the event at the Military World Games and won bronze medals over the distance at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2010 African Championships in Athletics. He has also represented Kenya at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships and the All-Africa Games.
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Julius Yego is a Kenyan track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw. Nicknamed "Mr. YouTube" because he learned how to throw by watching YouTube videos of javelin athletes, Yego is the African record and Commonwealth record holder for the event with a personal best of 92.72 m.
Taoufik Makhloufi is an Algerian athlete who specialises in middle-distance running. He became the 1500 metres Olympic champion at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. In 2016, Makhloufi took the silver medal in the 800m and 1500 m at the Summer Olympics in Rio, Brazil.
The East Germany national athletics team represented East Germany at the international athletics competitions such as Olympic Games or World Athletics Championships.
The Saint Kitts and Nevis national athletics team represents Saint Kitts and Nevis at the international athletics competitions such as Olympic Games or World Athletics Championships.
The marathon at the Summer Olympics is the only road running event held at the multi-sport event. The men's marathon has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1896. Nearly ninety years later, the women's event was added to the programme at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Kenya competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's fourteenth appearance at the Summer Olympics.
Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkemoi is a Kenyan steeplechase runner. She won gold at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics and 2011 All-Africa Games, and bronze at the 2017 World Championships and 2012 African Championships in Athletics. At the Olympic Games, she won silver in Rio de Janeiro and bronze in Tokyo. As of August 2021, her personal best time of 9:00.01 ranks her 6th on the world all-time list.
Kenya competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016.
South Sudan competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. South Sudan had been an independent nation since 2011, but its civil war had delayed its membership with the International Olympic Committee until 2015, making 2016 its first official appearance at the Olympic Games. The country was offered three universality placements in athletics, as no South Sudanese athletes met the Olympic qualifying standards prior to the Games. Three athletes, two men and one woman, competed in three track and field events, but did not win any medals. The sole woman, Margret Rumat Hassan, was given a spot eight days prior to the start of the Games that had been allotted previously to Mangar Makur Chuot. This change was against the advice of the South Sudan Athletics Federation and was due allegedly to pressure from Samsung, for whom Hassan had appeared in an advertisement. The flagbearer for both the opening and closing ceremony was Guor Marial, a marathon runner who, then unable to represent South Sudan, had competed as an Independent Olympic Athlete in 2012. Five South Sudanese nationals also competed as members of the Refugee Olympic Team.