I was hoping to go out and run at lunch today. It got dark right before lunch and the skies opened up; looking much better now. I will try and head out around 3 this afternoon to get in a run. We are under a tornado watch until 3.
A track and field athlete was featured in my LSU Tiger Athletic Foundation email today. It's not often that distance runners get featured in the land where football rules.....
Gameday Xtra: John Kosgei Setting the Pace in First Season at
LSU
(05/14/2008) BY www.LSUsports.net
by Jesse DelernoLSU Sports
Information
When John
Kosgei departed the Rift Valley Province of western Kenya -- an
African region world-famous for its distance-running supremacy -- there was
little doubt he would embark on a successful collegiate career in the United
States.
Kosgei’s hometown of Eldoret and its neighboring towns and cities are
fertile breeding grounds for world-class athletes who dominate international
competitions, including the Olympic Games.
But even with his country’s
illustrious history of distance-running success, the junior phenom continues to
raise eyebrows with what he’s been able to accomplish in only two and a half
years of collegiate track and field.
Kosgei’s collegiate career began at
South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, where he earned five All-America
honors in the National Junior College Athletic Association and helped the Texans
win their first outdoor national crown in program history. After two sensational
seasons, he transferred to LSU where he has been nothing short of spectacular in
his first season.
His talent was on display in his very first 3,000-meter
race of the indoor season when he broke the school record with a time of 7
minutes, 55.49 seconds at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in February,
shattering the 19-year-old mark held by LSU great Terry Thornton since
1989.
Kosgei followed that feat with an unprecedented performance at the SEC
Indoor Track and Field Championships where the captured titles in both the mile
and 3,000 meters.
His victory in the 3,000 meters marked the first time in
LSU history that a Tiger had claimed the event title at the SEC meet. Perhaps
even more impressive was his winning time of 3:59.85 in the mile, which broke
the four-minute barrier for only the second time in program history. For his
efforts, Kosgei took home the SEC Commissioner’s Trophy as the top individual
point scorer on the men’s side for the meet and was named the SEC Male Indoor
Runner of the Year.
Assistant head coach Mark
Elliott, who coaches LSU’s distance runners, did not expect his gifted
transfer to have this much success right away.
“It’s almost unbelievable what
he’s been able to accomplish during the indoor season,” Elliott said. “I know
he’s talented, but if I said that I knew he would win both races at the indoor
conference championships, I would be lying. There are a lot of great runners in
this conference.”
With all of the extraordinary accomplishments he has
attained thus far, it’s hard to believe that Kosgei has only been running for a
few years after taking up the sport late in high school.
“Back in high
school, I started jogging with my family and friends and I told myself that I
should try this,” Kosgei said. “I just kept jogging and jogging, and I really
liked it. Day by day, I was getting better and better and realized I could make
it in this sport.”
Kosgei credits his father as an influence in his running
career and pushing him to be the best he can be.
“My father didn’t think I
could run early on, but he watched me get better day after day,” Kosgei said.
“He kept encouraging me and bought a pair of shoes for me to run in.”
Kosgei
trained rigorously in the Great Rift Valley, hoping for a chance to take his
talents overseas. His break would come in 2006 when a friend and fellow Kenyan
approached him about a special opportunity.
“A friend of mine who ran track
at South Plains in Texas came back home looking for runners,” Kosgei said. “I
was running every morning at the time, and he told me about the opportunity to
run in the United States. I said, ‘Hey, that’s a good deal.’”
As Kosgei
started flashing the potential at SPC that would make him a national champion in
the 5,000 meters and a four-time NJCAA runner-up over a two-year span, coaches
from across the country began to take notice, including those on the LSU
staff.
“When we were competing at nationals last year, the LSU coaches came
over and talked to me about potentially running for LSU,” Kosgei explained. “I
came here for a visit and decided this was a good place for me to continue my
career.”
In addition to furthering his collegiate career at an elite track
and field program, Kosgei also chose to attend LSU for academic reasons.
He
hopes that a political science degree from LSU will allow him to make a
difference in his native Kenya, which had been the scene of widespread ethnic
violence and unrest until mid-April. A disputed presidential election in
December 2007 led to more than 1,200 deaths and disrupted the training schedule
of many potential Olympians hoping to qualify for the Beijing Games this
summer.
But before Kosgei can look forward to a political career back home,
he has a collegiate career ahead of him, including a chance to help the Tigers’
outdoor postseason efforts that starts with the SEC Outdoor Championships this
weekend. Additionally, he is looking to post a qualifying mark for Kenya’s
Olympic trials.
“Right now, he’s looking to run some pretty good times to
qualify for his country’s Olympic trials,” Elliott said. “I think if he’s on his
game and he’s pushed pretty hard, he’ll run extremely well the rest of the
season.”
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