Wow, terrible news. It is always the brightest stars that flame out the fastest. Rest in peace Sammy.
Wow, terrible news. It is always the brightest stars that flame out the fastest. Rest in peace Sammy.
RIP
very tragic news
So long sammy.... GOAT, IMO as well...
He changed the sport of marathoning forever. I'll tell my kids about him.
RIP, Sammy. You were definitely an inspiration. I'm going to get up first thing in the morning and run in your memory.
The AP and other newswires have picked up the story. It's now on the NY Times site so it seems legit. Terribly sad. I'd hoped he would remain in Japan, surrounded by the support that made him an Olympic Champion. Instead, his recent life has played out as a slimmed down version of Mike Tyson's story.
It took a good 10 seconds for the LetsRun homepage to process in my brain before I know what was going on. Absolutely surreal...
Glad I got in an 18-mile double today. I will dedicate those runs to him, and I'll go all-out at the end of my tempo tomorrow night in his honor.
RIP
Old Ultra Guy wrote:
A. E. Housman.
To An Athlete Dying Young
...
Spot on.
Didn't sound like this was premeditated...
RIP Sammy
What a devastating loss in the running community. I've never seen such a talent, hard to grasp that he has died..
We want this thread to be a tribute to Sammy Wanjiru. We have another thread devoted to events surrounding his death:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=4046022&page=0
That being said, we'll briefly tell you what resulted in the end of his life on this thread.
Until now, we didn't feel comfortable reporting what we'd heard about the cause of death as our sources didn't want to be on the record. However, a published report is now out from Kenya stating that the "police report says the athlete fell from his 2nd floor house after a domestic quarrel with his wife."
That basically is what we'd heard as well.
You can get all of detailed specifics from an excellent article here:
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/sports/local/olympic_champion_wanjiru_jumps_to_his_death.html
Read that and you'll know pretty much everything except if alcohol was involved.
If you want to post about the events surrounding his death, please don't do it on this thread or it will be removed. GO here:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=4046022
Read more:
The way Wanjiru pounded the marathon from the very start changed the way elites ran marathons. The others had to respond to his tactics, and attempted to hold on for the finish. Now that Sammy has left us, I think we can really understand how his style of distance running raised the bar for all his competitors. Even though he did not post the fastest times, he had two of the gutsiest marathons we can remember in Beijing 2008 and Chicago 2010.
He left the Earthly world too early.
And we die young,
Faster we run.
Sammy was truly an inspiration when he ran. I'll never forget the excitement I felt watching the 2008 Olympic run. That was probably the best marathon I'll ever see.
An ascendant and inspirational runner.
Gutsy. He was a major dude.
RIP Sammy.
Wanjiru redesigned modern marathoning. Instead of pacing he made the marathon a racing competition again.
No matter the circumstances, he entered the race fearless. Resulting in one of the memorable races of all time, the 2008 Olympic marathon.
This is truly heartbreaking for me.
He was without a doubt my favorite marathoner and it is shocking that we will never see Sammy run again and destroy his competition. Sad day.
I’m a D2 female runner. Our coach explicitly told us not to visit LetsRun forums.
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