Wanjiru blew away the field at the 2008 Olympic Marathon
In 2008, Sammy Wanjiru was the most exciting marathoner in the world. Three years later, at the age of 24, he was dead.
After watching the powerful Kenyan destroy the competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympic marathon, Dave Bedford – the organiser of the London Marathon and something of a maverick himself – called him “instantly the best and most exciting marathon runner in the world, maybe ever.”
What got Bedford and others so excited wasn’t Wanjiru’s electric speed or perfect stride. It was his attitude: Wanjiru didn’t fear the marathon distance. Not for him the steady start and sensible pacing; Wanjiru was a relentless frontrunner who pushed as hard as he could for as long as he could. He was just as bold with his ambitions. Following his head-turning performance at Beijing, he announced his intention to break the fabled two-hour marathon.
VICES AND VIRTUES
Wanjiru had two problems standing between him and immortality: women and booze. A fractious relationship with wife Terezah Njiri and a fondness for hard liquor began to take their toll on his personal life and career. Not that you would have known it initially. In 2009, Wanjiru triumphed at the London and Chicago marathons – both in course records. A year later, having been ordered to Italy by his manager for a liver toxicity test, Wanjiru was still able to triumph at the Chicago Marathon, winning a thrilling finish with Ethiopia’s diminutive Tsegaye Kebede.
But winning meant prize money. And prize money, in the hands of Wanjiru, was a dangerous thing. Nothing if not generous, Wanjiru built houses for his wives (often at inflated prices) and even covered his friends’ restaurant bills. “Sammy’s great problem,” remarked his former coach Claudio Berardelli, “was that he could never say no.”
Unfortunately, that rule also applied to alcohol. Liquor flowed freely in his final years, with Wanjiru’s life sadly spiralling out of control. On what was to be his final night, Wanjiru returned home after a lengthy drinking session with one of his girlfriends, Jane Nduta, and promptly passed out. Njiri came home and discovered him in bed with Nduta, which she was, understandably, not best pleased about. What followed was an intensely heated argument between the two women, but the rest is a mystery.
Although no one is quite sure what happened, the general consensus is that Wanjiru woke up and attempted to climb down from the balcony to continue the argument with Njiru. He slipped, fell, hit his head and died. He was just 24.
