Samuel Ireri Gathimba

Samuel Ireri Gathimba
Personal information
Born (1977-03-05) March 5, 1977
Height 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Weight 57 kg (126 lb)
Sport
Country  Kenya
Sport Athletics
Event(s) Men's 20km Walk

Samuel Ireri Gathimba (born 26 October 1987) is a Kenyan racewalking athlete. He was the 20 kilometres walk gold medallist at the African Championships in Athletics in 2016. He holds a personal best of 1:19:24 hours.

Gathimba emerged at international level in 2014, taking a silver medal at the 2014 African Championships in Athletics behind Lebogang Shange of South Africa. He set a personal best of 1:23:59 hours to place second at the national champsionships that year, behind David Kimutai Rotich.[1][2] He topped the podium at the 2015 national trials with a new best of 1:23:12 hours, which ranked him in the world's top 100 for the first time.[3][4] He again demonstrated his place among the continent's best at the 2015 African Games where he lost out on the gold to Shange by a margin of one second.[5]

The 2016 season proved to be a breakthrough for Gathimba. At the 2016 African Championships in Athletics he was a gold medallist by a large margin, crossing the line in a championship record of 1:19:24 hours. This was a Kenyan record and was 22 seconds off Hatem Ghoula's near two-decade-old African best.[6]

International competitions

Year Competition Venue Position Event Notes
2014 African Championships Marrakech, Morocco 2nd 20 km walk 1:27:11
2015 African Games Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo 2nd 20 km walk 1:26:44
2016 African Championships Durban, South Africa 1st 20 km walk 1:19:24 CR

National titles

References

  1. 2014 end-of-year reviews – race walks. IAAF (2014-12-22). Retrieved on 2016-07-01.
  2. Senior outdoor 2014 20 Kilometres Race Walk men. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-07-01.
  3. Mutuota, Mutwiri (2015-08-01). ‘Fergie’ topples ‘King David’, Kiprop, Sum soar. Capital FM Sports. Retrieved on 2016-07-01.
  4. Senior outdoor 2015 20 Kilometres Race Walk men. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-07-01.
  5. African Games Men's 20 km walk Results. Brazzaville2015. Retrieved on 2016-07-01.
  6. Botton, Wesley (2016-06-26). Van Niekerk takes 200m title, two more golds for Semenya as African Championships conclude. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-07-01.
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