With the Chicago Marathon just days away we take some time to remember the man he gave us of the greatest marathon finishes in recent years, Sammy Wanjiru. Sammy battled Tsegaye Kebede over the final miles and taking his first real lead around the final turn as he pulled away for a 2:06:24 victory to defend his Chicago title. It was said that Wanjiru was not in he best shape for the race and his coach Federico Rosa was quote as saying"It was the greatest surprise I have ever seen in my life." (NY Times story here)

Sammy Wanjiru was on his way to become one of the best marathoners of all-time. In his brief career Sammy won five major marathons with his double Chicago wins, Fukuoka in 2007, the London marathon (his 2:05:10 here ranks him as #11 best marathoner) and the 2008 Olympic Marathon in Beijing where he said an Olympic record on a hot, humid day. The Olympic champ didn't slow down in 2009 as he saw a big year winning both London and Chicago. In 2007 he broke the world half marathon record with a 58:53, breaking Haile Gebrselassie's record by two seconds. Less than a month later, Wanjiru took 20 seconds off that time to crush his own record in 58:33, a mark that stood for three years and is still the #3 time all-time.

In a strange series of events, Sammy Wanjiru lost his life on May 15, 2011. The man who claimed a sub-2 hour marathon was possibile would never get his chance to make the dream a reality. Sammy gave us a lot of great memories of only a few years and this weekend in Chicago we will remember him.

Watch more video of 2010 Chicago Marathon on flotrack.org

Watch more video of 2010 Chicago Marathon on flotrack.org

(here Sammy talks about injuries and almost not running Chicago in 2010)


Flotrack Coverage of the 2011 Chicago Marathon