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Medal record | ||
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Men's athletics | ||
Representing Kenya | ||
African Championships | ||
2008 Addis Ababa | 3000 m s'chase | |
World Junior Championships | ||
2002 Kingston | 3000 m s'chase | |
World Cross Country Championships | ||
2003 Lausanne | Team short race | |
2007 Mombasa | Team long race |
Michael Kipkorir Kipyego (born 2 October 1983) is a Kenyan runner who competes in marathon races. He was initially a specialist in the 3000 metres steeplechase and was the 2002 World Junior Champion in the event. He represented Kenya in the steeplechase at the World Championships in 2003 and was runner-up at the 2008 African Championships. He set a personal best of 8:08.48 hours in 2009.
He won two team titles with Kenya at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships – in the short race 2003 and the long race in 2007. Kipyego switched to road running in 2011 and ran a personal best of 2:06:48 hours for third at the Eindhoven Marathon. He won the Tokyo Marathon title in 2012.
Born in Kemeloi in Kenya's Marakwet District, Kipyego was drawn to distance running by his older brother, Christopher Kipyego, who was a marathon runner. (Their younger sibling, Sally Kipyego, would also become a professional runner.) He began competing in the 3000 metres steeplechase as a teenager, choosing the same specialist event as locally born world champion Moses Kiptanui. His first international selection for Kenya was the 1999 World Youth Championships in Athletics, where he came eighth in the 3000 metres flat. He joined Colm O'Connell's St. Patrick's school in Iten in 2000 and success followed shortly after: he was the silver medallist in the steeplechase at the 2001 African Junior Athletics Championships behind Ezekiel Kemboi.