News update
  • UN Security Council condemns Jammu and Kashmir terror attack     |     
  • 250,000 mourners pay last respects to Pope Francis in 3 days      |     
  • US Restructuring Plan May Include World Bank, IMF & UN Agencies     |     
  • AL-BNP clash leaves over 50 injured in Habiganj     |     
  • Bangladeshi youth injured in BSF firing along Akhaura border     |     

Kenya's record breaking athlete Rono dies aged 72

Nation 2024-02-15, 10:29pm

2024-02-15-22-bfdc2931fc903089fe262328bcd6a6111708015710.jpg




Nairobi, 15 Feb  - Kenyan long-distance runner Henry Rono, who set four world records in 81 days, has died at the age of 72, athletics officials said on Thursday. 

Rono was a student at the Washington State University in the United States when he blazed the track with four world records in 1978 in the 3,000m, 5,000m and 3,000m steeplechase disciplines. 

 He "was one of the best long distance athletes Kenya has ever produced," two-time Olympic gold medallist and Kenya's former Olympic committee chief Kipchoge Keino told AFP. 

"It's unfortunate he didn't compete in the 1980 Olympic games, he would easily have come home with at least two gold medals."

Athletics Kenya said Rono had been hospitalised for the past 10 days. 

 Rono, who at one-time lived in a car park in the US, returned to Kenya in 2019 after three decades, according to media reports. 

"I was a baby when Henry left the country. I'm now 43," his brother told Kenya's The Standard newspaper at the time.