America’s Fastest Distance Runner, Kenyan born, Bernard Lagat

Kenyan born, Bernard Lagat, owns three American distance records

Who is America’s fastest distance runner?    Kenyan born, Bernard Lagat, holds that title since becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States in May 2004.

Oddly enough Lagat competed for Kenya in the 2004 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal in the 1500. 

Lagat now lives in Tucson Arizona with his wife Gladys Tom, a Canadian of Chinese decent.

Lagat wins a silver medal for Kenya

Since the U.S. allows dual citizenship which means that since 2004 Lagat can be ratified to have broken American records.  However the USATF did not ratify his August 2004 1500 meter record time of 3 minutes 27.40 seconds.

Lagat does own three other American records from races that he ran in 2005.  He set the American record in the indoor mile with a time of 3:49.89 during which his 1500 meter split time of 3:33.34 also established an American record.

Later, while running in Rieti, Italy in August 2005, Lagat set the American outdoor record for the 1500 meters with his time of 3:29.40.

So there you have it.  Since the U.S. can no longer produce outstanding distance runners the next best thing to do is import them from Kenya.

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