anyone out there know what happened to thisguy? ran around 1995 for some small community college out in kansas or something. anyway, he was the smoothest runner i ever saw. totally did what he wanted to in races. never saw him lose. there was also another kenyan steepler from johnson county around the same time. this guy also was amazing. saw him run everything from a 1.48 on the sprint relay to 4 minutes solo mile. forgot his name though- bungei?
eluid showed up at iowa state in the fall of 95, along with richard kosgei. they had run 8:09 and 8:10 that previous summer. iowa state had won the 94 NCAA Xc meet, but had lost some of their key runners. unfortunately for them, eluid and kosgei showed up with cars in tow paid for with their summer earnings. the ncaa put a quick kaibosh on the deal, and as far as i know they never competed for iowa state.
I remember hearing those stories. This was really the beginning of the end for the ISU power teams, especially once guys like Dmitri Drozdov and (current coach) Corey Ihmels graduated.
When Bill Bergan and his international connections left Ames, things changed in a hurry. The 'Clones went from 1st at the National meet in 1995 to 18th in 1996 to not-qualifying in 1997. They've only been to one nationals (1998) since then.
I did see Ihmels got a good in-state kid (Uhl)this year.
correction: iowa state won in 94. arkansas returned to the victor's spot in 95.
Thanks for catching that.
yes! that was his name- kosgei. did either of thyem run anymore internationally after that?
Eluid indeed was at Iowa State but didn't have car or any of the other nonsense. He was living with one of the guys on the team in a modest apartment. Eventually Coach advised him to take the money and turn pro. He was a great teammate and friend and none of the rumors were true, I was there. Another of my teammates saw him a few years ago and he was doing well.
Eliud...ran for Missouri Valley College in the spring of 1994. MVC is an NAIA school in Heart of America Athletic Conference. I ran for another school in the conference and got to know him fairly well while he was in the states.
Eliud was from Kipsabet, Kenya and yes he went on to run an 8:05 steeple, which at the time was one of the best times ever run. However he never ran the steeple during the college season. I remember him telling me he was just doing the 1500's and 5000's for training, but his real racing would come that summer in the steeple. He did win the Drake Relays 5000m and NAIA 1500m and 5000m.
Anyway...yes I believe he was going to go to Iowa State along with Richard Kosgie, but he did run in Europe that summer.
Also Eliud's cousin Tanui ran for MVC for a season before transferring to Central Missouri State University.