Noah Ngeny

In spirit of writing about the mile in my last two post I have decided to continue this trend with one of my favorite stories about the mile. Hicham El Guerrouj is the current record holder of the mile with a time of 3:43.13. On July 7, 1999, almost ten years ago, the race took place in Rome. El Guerrouj ran one of the most legendary miles of all time. The race which can be seen is an example of the extraodinary capabilities of the human being. But this article, as indicated by the title is not about the winner.

Noah Ngeny is a Kenyan runner who has had his share of success as well. He won a gold medal in 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydeney in the 1500m, against Hicam El Guerrouj in fact. But in the 1999 mile race he was less than a second away from having the world record in the mile himself.

At the start of the race Hicam El Guerrouj was expected to make an attempt at the world record. He had two pace setters with him; and, he established himself far in front of the pack from the beginning. As the race progessed he began there there was one runner, niether pace setter who was intent on keeping up with him. It was Noah Ngeny, a much younger runner than El Guerrouj. It was exciting to see two men competing for the world record. It came down to the final lap and Ngeny was just out of the lead. Both runners held close as they rounded the final turn and onto what might have been the most important straight-away of their lives. Ngeny made and attempt to pass El Guerrouj with a little less than 50m left. He gained the lead for a second or so. Ngeny passed the line at 4:43:40, a mere 0:0.27 seconds after Hicam El Guerrouj set the world record. Ngeny never even broke the world record. He broke the 2nd place time though.

Why is does this matter. The chances for me or anyone I know to set an athletic record is almost none. But imagine watching your own world record get erased 0.27 seconds before you even set it. Noah Ngeny will never be able to say he held the title of world’s fastest mile, even though he may have. I would have driven myself crazy if I were in his position. The margin for failure is small but the margin for victory is even smaller. Although, there is not a large group of people who will remember either name, the course of history was changed in 0.27 seconds, literally the blink of an eye. I will remember Noah Ngeny for giving one of the best races ever though.

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