Moses Kiptanui (born 1 October 1970) is a Kenyan

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and long distance

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

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.

Career

Kiptanui emerged in 1991 as a relatively unknown athlete. He won several IAAF Grand Prix races that season. He celebrated an especially spectacular victory in Zurich where he fell on the track on the last lap but still won easily. He was known as a highly confident and somewhat cocky athlete, who was self-coached and driven by his own self belief. His victory at the

1991 World Championships in Athletics The 3rd World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan between August 23 and September 1. 1517 athletes from 167 countries participa ...

in Tokyo therefore came as no surprise. To the great disappointment of many observers he was not included in the Kenyan team at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

in Barcelona. Kiptanui had failed to qualify at the Kenyan trials in Nairobi. However, shortly after the Olympics he set a new world record over 3000m in Cologne with a time of 7:28.96 min. Only three days later he also broke the 3000m steeplechase world record in 8:02.08 in Zurich. The following year, he defended the World Championship title easily in Stuttgart. He won the steeplechase at the

1994 IAAF World Cup The 7th IAAF World Cup in Athletics was an international track and field sporting event sponsored by the International Association of Athletics Federations, held on September 9–11, 1994, at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London, Engl ...

. In 1995 he broke the 5000m world record in Rome in a time of 12:55.30 min (8 June). After collecting his third World Championship gold medal in

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he also set the new 3000m steeplechase record in Zurich in a time of 7:59.18 min (16 August), the first man in history to ever dip under eight minutes for the 3000m steeplechase. A year later, he missed out on an Olympic gold medal again when he came second in the final in Atlanta. He was defeated by fellow Kenyan Joseph Keter. The next year, at the

1997 World Championships in Athletics The 6th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, were held at the Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece between August 1 and August 10, 1997. In this event participated 1882 athletes from 19 ...

in Athens, Greece, Kiptanui failed to win his fourth consecutive gold medal, but took silver. The winner was Wilson Boit Kipketer, also from Kenya. He was still active in 2001 sighting the 2002 Commonwealth Games, but did not compete there. After retirement, he has been a running coach. In 2008 he coached the 2004 Olympic gold medalist,

Ezekiel Kemboi Ezekiel Kemboi Cheboi (born 25 May 1982) 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 W ...

. He has also been the chairman of the Marakwet District branch of Athletics Kenya.Daily Nation, June 5, 2000
Polls open a new chapter in KAAA
/ref> His younger brother, Philemon Tanui, runs for University of Wyoming. A school was built by Shoe4Africa to honor the lifetime achievements of Kiptanui. The Shoe4Africa Moses Kiptanui School was opened in 2012 at Kamoi district, Marakwet and has eight primary classes with 320 students. Two ancillary early childhood development classes were added in 2015. Major achievements *1990 **

1990 African Championships in Athletics The 1990 African Championships in Athletics were held in Cairo, Egypt between 3 and 6 October. Medal summary Men's events Women's events Medal table See also *1990 in athletics (track and field) External linksResults– GBR Athletics {{ ...

- Cairo, Egypt. ***1500m

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

1990 IAAF World Junior Championships The 1990 World Junior Championships in Athletics was the 1990 edition of the World Junior Championships in Athletics. It was held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria on 8–12 August. Results Men Women Medal table Participation According to an unoffic ...

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, Bulgaria. ***1500m gold medal *1991 **

- Tokyo,

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. ***3000m steeplechase gold medal **

1991 All-Africa Games The 5th All-Africa Games were held from September 20 to October 1, 1991, in Cairo, Egypt. Forty-three countries participated in eighteen sports. For the first time the Games were held on a four-year cycle as planned. Egypt had hoped to use the G ...

- Cairo, Egypt. ***3000m steeplechase gold medal *1993 **

1993 World Championships in Athletics The 4th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Neckarstadium, Stuttgart, Germany between 13 and 22 August with the participation of 187 nations. Having ori ...

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

, Germany. ***3000m steeplechase gold medal *1994 **

1994 Goodwill Games The 1994 Goodwill Games was the third edition of the multi-sport event, created by Ted Turner, which was held in Saint Petersburg, Russia between July 23 and August 7, 1994. The event – designed to improve Soviet Union – United States relatio ...

- Saint Petersburg, Russia. ***5000m gold medal *1995 **

1995 World Championships in Athletics The 5th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg, Sweden on 5–13 August 1995. This edition featured 1804 athletes from 191 nat ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. ***3000m steeplechase gold medal *1996 **

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

- Atlanta, United States of America. ***3000 m steeplechase

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

*1997 **

- Athens, Greece. ***3000m steeplechase silver medal

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kiptanui, Moses 1970 births Living people People from Elgeyo-Marakwet County Kenyan male middle-distance runners Kenyan male long-distance runners Kenyan male steeplechase runners Olympic male steeplechase runners Olympic athletes of Kenya Olympic silver medalists for Kenya Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics World record setters in athletics (track and field) World Athletics Championships athletes for Kenya World Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) African Games gold medalists for Kenya African Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Goodwill Games medalists in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 1991 All-Africa Games World Athletics Championships winners Competitors at the 1994 Goodwill Games