FEBRUARY HAS DELIVERED tragedy and emotional trial for the sport and distance power nation Kenya. A second painful blow landed on the 15th of the month, four days after the passing of marathon WR holder Kelvin Kiptum, when reports came out of Nairobi that Washington State legend Henry Rono — he of four World Records within 81 days in 1978 — had succumbed at age 72 to an unspecified illness.
Deprived by Kenyan boycotts of the 1976 and ’80 Games of chances to perform for the world on the Olympic stage — and with his brief run of prime years preceding the first World Championships in ’83 — the sense is we never saw what a talent of Rono’s immense stature might have produced in an openly pro track world like today’s.
To honor Rono’s memory and spectacular ahead-of-the-curve performances, below you will find our 25th anniversary look-back at the distance great’s astounding ’78 campaign. It ran in the April, 2003, edition.
Rono’s two sessions as a T&FN Interview subject are linked here.
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Washington State sophomore Henry Rono began one of the greatest World Record streaks in history, blowing the collective mind of the distance running world.
In a span of 81 days (see box), the gap-toothed Kenyan star reeled off WRs in the 5000 (13:08.4), steeple (8:05.4), 10,000 (27:22.4) and 3000 (7:32.1).
He ran the 3K before a full house at the Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway, but mere handfuls of fans witnessed the shocking 5K in Berkeley and the steeple shot his coach John Chaplin had predicted for a rainy day in Seattle.
Even the 10K record, in Vienna, Austria, fell before a relatively tiny group of about 500 who lingered after a soccer match.
But with…
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