FACTOIDS
Full Name: Lornah Kiplagat
Nickname: Lornah
Birthday: May 1, 1974
Height: 5’5”
Hometown: Nairobi, Kenya
Sports: Track & Field
PROFILE
Lornah Kiplagat, like a fine wine, seems to get better with age. The graceful 33-year-old continued a strong 2007 season with a wire-to-wire victory at the NYRR New York Mini 10K on June 9 in Central Park. Kiplagat finished in 32:10, winning the event for the third straight year and fourth time overall. She defeated a formidable field that included Kim Smith of New Zealand, Mara Yamauchi of Great Britain, Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia, Lidiya Grigoryeva of Russia, and Benita Johnson of Australia.
Kiplagat also won the 2007 World Cross Country Championships in the country of her birth, Kenya. In the past two years, she has won two World Championships gold medals and set world records at the IAAF World Road Running Championships 20K (1:03:21) and the Dam to Damloop 10-mile race (50:50). She’s also the world record-holder in the 5K road race (14:47).
Dominant on the road and the track, Kiplagat has won important races since her Los Angeles Marathon triumph in 1997. She’s the only woman to win the Peachtree and Falmouth road races in the same year—and she’s done it three times. She has won the World’s Best 10K in Puerto Rico five times.
Kiplagat has run for the Netherlands since 2003. She holds Dutch records at distances from the 5K to the marathon. She and her husband, Pieter Langerhorst, split their time between the Netherlands and Kenya. She uses her own prize money to fund the High Altitude Training Center for young athletes in Kenya. One of those athletes, Sally Kipyego, of Texas Tech, became the 2006 NCAA Division I champion in cross country.
Two days before her “three-peat” at the NYRR New York Mini 10K, Kiplagat talked to Fast-Women.com about her training center, her status as a role model, her unceasing popularity in Kenya, her love for New York City, and the one major goal left in her remarkable career.
