Noah Kibet, the first medal winner for Kenya at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade

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Men’s 800m, Mariano Garcia takes gold, Noah Kibet grabs silver, and Bryce Hoppel takes bronze, photo by StarGazerPix, via Peacock TV

In a very satisfying indoor 800m, Mariano Garcia of Spain gave his country their first medal at the indoor distance since 1985, when Colomon Trabado lead a 1-2 medal run by Spain. Noah Kibet, who took the silver, the first medal for Kenya in these championships, is, at 17, the youngest medalist in the history of the World Indoor Championships! This is Justin Lagat’s piece on the new silver medalist!

After a dismal start for the Kenyan team at the world indoor championships in Belgrade, where both women in the 3000m failed to get on the podium, Naomi Korir finishing last in her heat in the women’s 800m and Ferdinand Omanyala failing to proceed to the finals in the men’s 60m, it was such a huge relief for Kenyans when the youngster, Noah Kibet, in the men’s 800m final ran a spectacular race to finish second and win the first medal for Kenya; a rare and precious silver medal for the country under the circumstances.

Running in almost the same version he did during the World U20 championships in Kasarani last year to win a bronze medal for Kenya, where he had stayed almost at the front and made an early break at the last lap, only to be overtaken with about 150m to go. This time around, Kibet was a little bit more patient. He let Marco Arop of Canada do most of the pacing duties as he stuck around 3rd place, waiting to strike.

Noah Kibet, Mariano Garcia, Bryce Hoppel, photo by Star Gazer Pix, via Peacock TV

However, Mariano Garcia of Spain eventually proved himself the stronger runner as he took the gold medal in 1:46.20 ahead of Kibet taking the silver medal in 1:46.35, and Bryce Hoppel settled for the bronze in 1:46.51. Arop would fade to 8th place after doing most of the front running.

While both are 800m specialists, one thing that is currently common with Noah Kibet and his coach is that they are both relatively new in their fields. It is only their second time attending a World Athletics event as a runner and a coach; the first one has been at the WU20 Championships in August last year in Nairobi.

Kibet is coached by Janeth Jepkosgei, the 2002 world U20 and 2007 world 800m champion, who also happens to be the coach for the Kenyan team in Belgrade. Emmanuel Wanyonyi who won the gold medal in the men’s 800m at the WU20 championships where Kibet had won the bronze medal is also coached by Jepkosgei.

Today, on the last day of the championships, Kenyans are hopeful to get more medals from Abel Kipsang in the men’s 1500m, and Daniel Simiu and Jacob Krop in the men’s 3000m.

Author

Elliott Denman

One of the finest and most prolific writers in our sport, Elliott Denman has written about our sport since 1956, when he represented the US in 1956 Olympic Games at the 50k race walk, the longest event on the Olympic schedule. A close observer of the sport, Elliott writes about all of our sport, combining the skills of a well honed writer with the style of ee Cummings. We are quite fortunate to have Elliott Denman as a friend and advisor.

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