In Memoriam Richard
Chelimo
Ottavio Castellini
for the IAAF
17 August 2001 - I saw his last pictures in “The Athlete”, the magazine
published by Moses Tanui and Paul Tergat in Kenya. They had photographed him on
his farm near Iten, the famous centre forty or so kilometres from Eldoret,
places that evoke that running paradise in the heart of the Rift Valley.
Richard Chelimo had been photographed standing by his tractor, wearing a tracksuit with the logo of the World Cross Country Championships in Durham, England in 1995. They were pictures of a man who was attempting a proud if difficult return to his athletic form of earlier days. In 1998 Richard had put on a lot of weight, weighing over 80 kilos. “Puffy, pathetic with a protruding stomach,” his friends (Moses, Paul and many others) told me on one of my frequent trips to Kenya. But Moses Tanui did not give up and was trying to convince his friend Richard to get back on the straight and narrow. And when you know just how determined Moses could be, you could be sure of his success.
And so it was: Richard started running again, got rid of a lot of weight (he was back down to around 60 kg) and started to lead a more regular life. He used to say that he wanted to turn his dream into reality: “I want to overcome one thing after the other to prepare myself for the big occasion. Stockholm (where he recorded the world record, n.d.r.) gives me pleasant memories. I would like to run a historic race there one day and to remind my fans that I truly appreciate the support they lend me,” he said.
The young Richard had written some major pages in the history of distance running. He was World Junior Champion in the 10,000m in Plovdiv in 1990, ahead of his brother Ismael Kirui (do not be surprised at the difference in their names, this is normal in Kenya): the two had run alone from the 12 lap to the finish.
In 1991 he improved the world junior record for the 5000m three times (13:14.15, 13:12.22, 13:11.76) in just 14 days (between 3 and 17 July), but only one record was recognized (the second) as the organizers had omitted to carry out the mandatory anti-doping test. On 25 June he had set a new junior record in the 10,000m of 27:11.88 that still stands today.
But my greatest memory of Richard Chelimo goes back to the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo. It was 26 August and the 10,000 metres final was being run. Three Kenyans were in the race: Moses Tanui, Thomas Osano and Richard. He was told to make the running at a very fast pace, with the great strategist Moses Tanui the undisputed leader. Like a good soldier, Richard followed his orders: he went through 5000 metres in 13:30.27, world record pace. Moses followed some tens of metres behind and then at the 17th lap kicked to take the lead and win the race. Richard took second place and Morocco’s Khalid Skah the bronze.
A great cross country specialist, Richard was second in the Juniors event in 1990 before joining the senior squad the following year, coming fourth on the sandy course in Antwerp. In 1992 he came 5th in the arctic cold of Franklin Park in Boston running through the snow on the foot-freezing ground of the parkland course.
1992, the year of the Olympic Games in Samaranch’s Barcelona. Another unforgettable 10,000 metre final. Between Skah and Richard Chelimo were r
two shadows: that of another Moroccan, Hammou Boutayeb and that of the Swedish judge Carl-Gustav Tollemar, the then head of the IAAF Technical Committee. While the former played a rather unfair game in favour of Skah, the latter came onto the field to block the manoeuvre. Skah was at first disqualified and Richard Chelimo slept one night wrapped in Olympic glory, but the following day, Skah was reinstated. At the awards ceremony, a deafening cacophony of whistles greeted Skah, while Richard received the ovation of the true victor. But the Kenyan kept all his composure on the podium, as is the Kenyan way.
His disappointment was tempered a little a few months later, though, in the Stockholm Stadium on 5 July 1993, when he set a new world record in the 10,000m of 27:07.91: He was just 21 years and 72 days old and the youngest ever world record holder for the event. But that record set a record of its own: that of the shortest-lived, standing for just five days until 10 July, when another Kenyan, Yobies Ondieki became the first man under 27 minutes with his clocking of 26:53.38.
A few weeks went by, we are in Stuttgart on 22 August and the final of the 10,000m is being run. Chelimo was once again in the race, but had to succumb to the tightly fought duel between Haile Gebrselassie and Moses Tanui. The episode is famous, with Haile catching Tanui’s foot as they passed the bell and making him lose a shoe. The Ethiopian won the first of his four world titles at the distance, Moses came in second just 52 hundredths behind him and wearing just one shoe: a record of its own. There was a bitter argument between the two, and Richard Chelimo stood once again on the podium in third place.
This has been the chronicle of the brief life of a great champion. It was followed by a return to life in the fields, the physical degeneration and the attempt to return to fitness and then the fierce and murderous illness that yesterday took his life.
May the earth of the Rift Valley welcome your mortal remains.
Jambo Richard!
