Gary Senga Kikaya (born 4 February 1980) is a retired sprinter from the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. He competed in the 400 m event at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, but failed to reach the finals.

Education

Kikaya is the son of Kikaya bin Karubi, a former Information Minister of the Congo, and a former Special Assistant to President

Joseph Kabila Joseph Kabila Kabange ( , ; born 4 June 1971) is a Congolese politician who served as President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between January 2001 and January 2019. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, Pres ...

. At the age of 12 his family moved to

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

, South Africa, where his father served as the Congolese Ambassador to South Africa. Like most Southern African youths, his sporting interests began with rugby and soccer. He attended Queens High School in Johannesburg where he only turned to athletics as a senior in 1999 after watching the World Cup, in Johannesburg, the year before. He achieved the school's highest accolade in the form of a School Honours Blazer. He received a scholarship to study at Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), now the University of Johannesburg (UJ), was thereafter recruited by the University of Tennessee. Kikaya graduated in sociology at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...

Achievements

*2002

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

champion indoor and outdoor in 400 meters *2003

champion indoor in 400 meters *

2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 10th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) were held in the Budapest Arena, Hungary between March 5 and March 7, 2004. A total off 139 countries were r ...

– bronze medal *2006 Africa Athletics Championship – gold medal *Kikaya became the fastest non American athlete of all time (11th fastest man over 400m at the time, now 13th), running a new African record of 44.10 seconds to come second to

Jeremy Wariner Jeremy Matthew Wariner (born January 31, 1984) is a retired American track athlete specializing in the 400 meters. He has won four Olympic medals (three gold, one silver) and six World Championships medals. He is the fourth fastest competitor in ...

at the World Athletics Final 2006 in Stuttgart.All-time men's best 400 m
alltime-athletics.com

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kikaya, Gary 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of the Democratic Republic of the Congo World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists 21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo people