WHO IS BENJAMIN KIMUTAI KOSGEI?
By David Monti (c) 2002
Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved Benjamin Kimutai Kosgei
may have made an excellent marathon debut at Amsterdam last Sunday
winning the race in 2:07:26, but this talented athlete is unknown to
most of the sport's observers. "Benjamin is a very interesting
guy," said his manager and coach, Pieter Langerhorst from the
Netherlands, who is married to Lornah Kiplagat. Kimutai Kosgei,
born in 1971 in the Keiyo district of Kenya, was better known in the
athletics community as a physiotherapist. "He studied
physiotherapy and worked first with Gerard Hartmann in Ireland, later
with Lornah's physio, Bert Borghans," said Langerhorst. "He has his own
clinic in the center of Eldoret so every top athlete knows him,
but not as a runner." Kimutai Kosgei, who had pursued
an athletics career earlier and did a lot of track pacing for people
like Haile Gebreselassie, decided to move back into competition in
2001. He ran the 20-K in Alphen in the Netherlands,placing third in
58:18. After the race he asked Langerhorst if he could join Kiplagat's
High Altitude Training Center in Iten. Langerhorst began to coach him in
January of this year, but ran into some problems. "He ran the
Kenyan National XC and he was first refused because he was a massage
therapist and not a runner," remembers Langerhorst. He finished the
12-K in 37:14 in 11th place, beating stars like Paul Koech and
Tom Nyarkiki. He then went back to Europe to compete and ran
the City-Pier-City Half-Marathon in Den Haag finishing fifth in 1:01:33.
He then went on to win the Residenzlauf 10-K in Würzburg, Germany and
was fourth at the Monterrey Half-Marathon in Mexico. In August he was
seventh at the Falmouth Road Race, second at the Crim 10 Miles
(47:21) and third at the Rock 'N' Roll Half-Marathon in Virginia
Beach (1:02:10), only 11 seconds behind Paul Tergat.
"Many elite athletes were surprised to see him in these races because
they thought he was a therapist and not a runner," recounted
Langerhorst. Encouraged by his recent road racing successes, he
closed his clinic and started to concentrate on the Amsterdam Marathon.
He actually was trying to fulfill a promise. "In
April this year he spoke to the race organiser of the Amsterdam
Marathon, Cees Pronk, and he told him he wanted to run a marathon," said
Langerhorst. "Cees Pronk told him to come to Amsterdam but he should
win. Kimutai promised him to do so and it looks like he keeps his
promises!" David Monti, Editor &
Publisher, Race Results Weekly david@raceresultsweekly.com
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