I suspect that there is an issue with his birth certificate or verification of his birthdate at some level. Revealing that may undermine his elegibility during his HS years, Oregon years, and ultimately his sponsorship potential as a pro. It's lso not likely his fault as determining your birthdate in Kenya has been a challenge; birth certificates are not always issued in Kenya, especially in rural areas like where he's from.
As a Kenyan Ches cannot be given a pass on valid age with the lack of Official Birth Registration Programs in Kenyan. His HS marks warrant an * until age can be verified. As King 99 has mentioned to me on numerous American HS athletes have also competed overage and in violation of state HS guidelines. Fine runner but likely overage.
It's a shame, he should be the American record holder now in the Half and Marathon. He's more American than Khannouchi ever was.
As someone who was not around much for KK’s running career, what was it like? Did he make a slew of olympic teams? Or was he more of a one-off success? Was he on the american scene for a while or more so a flame that burned bright for a race or two? I dont know much about him
It's a shame, he should be the American record holder now in the Half and Marathon. He's more American than Khannouchi ever was.
As someone who was not around much for KK’s running career, what was it like? Did he make a slew of olympic teams? Or was he more of a one-off success? Was he on the american scene for a while or more so a flame that burned bright for a race or two? I dont know much about him
I'm likely younger than you, but off the top of my head I recall that he never made an Olympic team for either Morocco or the US, despite setting a world record in the marathon for each country; the latter mark (2:05:38) is still the American record. In spite of that big hole on his resumé, I get the impression he was consistently winning or challenging to win major marathons in the late 90s and early 00s. And I might be wrong, but if memory serves I think the closest he came to the Olympics was when he made a late-career comeback to finish 4th at the 2008 Marathon Trials. Those of you who weren't small children at that time (unlike me) can confirm or deny whether what I've said is accurate, my head hurts too much to bother looking any of this up.
From about 1997-2003, KK was the fcking man. First man to break 206 three times, world record holder, AR holder, and won a showdown with Geb and Tergat in London. And he did it after moving to the US at 21 where he worked in NYC like an immigrant, washing dishes while training to be the best marathoner in the world.
No olympic success, mainly related to injuries. By about 2003 he wasn’t really the same.
Khannouchi was living in the US and had a public spat with the Moroccan athletic Federation so was never selected for their Olympic team. He did not become a US citizen until after the 2000 trials. He was injured and on the decline by 2004, but did made an unexpected comeback and finished 4th in the trials for 2008 (held in Nov 2007). I remember the commentators saying the leaders better not look back because if they saw who was chasing them down it would instill the fear of god.
The 2002 London marathon where he set the WR while beating Tergat and Gebrselassie will probably always be my favorite marathon race of all time.
I mean if you watched him race in HS he looked quite young (much younger than the Rosa twins), I doubt he was more than 1yr older than his stated age.
Maybe that detracts from his HS accomplishments but not his college accomplishments, considering he didn’t redshirt and he won NCAA XC as a true freshman.
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