Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Kenya Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
Two Olympic golds and two silvers, and the beginning of everything — before Keino, Kenya had never won an Olympic title.
Hezekiah Kipchoge Keino was a police officer from Nandi who herded goats as a boy and ran because it was how you got anywhere.
At the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 he was ill with a gallbladder infection and had been told by doctors not to run. He ran three finals in eight days anyway. On the day of the 1500 metres the team bus was stuck in traffic; he got out and jogged the last mile or so to the stadium, arrived minutes before the start, and beat Jim Ryun — the world record holder and heavy favourite — by twenty metres, the largest winning margin in the history of the Olympic 1500. He had already taken silver in the 5,000 metres.
In Munich in 1972 he won the 3,000 metres steeplechase, an event he had barely run and whose technique he had not properly learned, and took silver in the 1500.
Everything Kenyan distance running has become since runs from him. He and his wife Phyllis then spent their lives on a children's home and school at Eldoret that has raised hundreds of orphaned children, which is why he was given the inaugural Olympic Laurel at Rio in 2016. He chaired the Kenyan Olympic committee for years.
At the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 he was ill with a gallbladder infection and had been told by doctors not to run. He ran three finals in eight days anyway. On the day of the 1500 metres the team bus was stuck in traffic; he got out and jogged the last mile or so to the stadium, arrived minutes before the start, and beat Jim Ryun — the world record holder and heavy favourite — by twenty metres, the largest winning margin in the history of the Olympic 1500. He had already taken silver in the 5,000 metres.
In Munich in 1972 he won the 3,000 metres steeplechase, an event he had barely run and whose technique he had not properly learned, and took silver in the 1500.
Everything Kenyan distance running has become since runs from him. He and his wife Phyllis then spent their lives on a children's home and school at Eldoret that has raised hundreds of orphaned children, which is why he was given the inaugural Olympic Laurel at Rio in 2016. He chaired the Kenyan Olympic committee for years.
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