Henry Wanyoike
Encyclopedia
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
n athlete
Athletics (track and field)
Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking...
. He is blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
and competes in the Paralympics and in marathon
Marathon
The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres , that is usually run as a road race...
racing.
Early career
Wanyoike is one of the world’s fastest runners. While still a child he was already being groomed to join an elite corps of athletes in a country that is known for its production of many world-class middle-distance runners over the last twenty years than any country on earth. He excelled at the 5,000 and 10,000-meter distances.In 1995, Wanyoike became almost completely blind after suffering a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
. "I went to bed a normal person, the following day I found myself in darkness." That night he lost 95% of his vision, and lost the rest gradually over the next few years. He was in despair. "I thought my life had come to an end."
His mother Grace brought him to the Kikuyu
Kikuyu, Kenya
Kikuyu is a town in the Central Province of Kenya. The town is located 20 km northwest of central Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Kikuyu hosts a town council and an administrative division in the Kiambu District....
Eye Clinic (a nearby hospital supported by Christian Blind Mission International (CBMI), recognised as one of the best centers for the visually impaired in East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
. Petra Verweyen, the chief of the Low Vision Project of the clinic, helped him to find his way back into life and arranged for him to learn to knit pullovers. With gratitude for the help he received at the project he promised himself he would help other blind people and teach them to become self-sufficient, as he had done. After winning his first gold medal in Sydney, Australia in 2000 at the Paralympic games
Paralympic Games
The Paralympic Games are a major international multi-sport event where athletes with a physical disability compete; this includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and Cerebral Palsy. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which are held immediately following their...
, he has bought knitting machines through prize money and charitable donations from such international personalities as Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
. He now employs other blind Kenyans and teaches them how to knit pullovers.
A blind runner is connected to a guide
Sighted guide
A sighted guide is a person who guides a person with blindness or vision impairment.-Paralympic Games:At the Paralympic Games there are various classifications of athletes with a visual impairment....
by a tether on the wrist, which the guide uses to subtly indicate, without breaking stride, when to turn, accelerate or avoid an obstacle, whether on the track or on the road, as in a marathon. Once Henry got used to working with guides, he quickly established himself as a world class non-sighted runner, earning a spot on the Kenyan national squad for the 5000 meter race at the Sydney Paralympics in 2000. As he ran so quickly another problem emerged, that his guides could not keep up. Nevertheless he not only won the gold medal but set a Paralympic record too. Now Wanyoike runs with his track guide and childhood friend, Joseph Kibunja.
Unlike most Kenyan athletes tend to concentrate on one or two events, Henry is among those very few who have ventured beyond and over the last five years, he has won gold or silver medals in the marathon, half-marathon, 10 km road race, the 10,000 meters, 5,000 meters and the 1,500 meters. No other Kenyan athlete has ventured so widely and so successfully. His time of 2:31:31 at the Hamburg Marathon
Hamburg Marathon
The Hamburg Marathon is an annual marathon race over the classic distance of held in Hamburg, Germany. In 2009, 13,938 participants were counted.- History :The first edition took place in 1986 with about 8,000 participants...
in 2005 still stands as the world record for blind runners.
Achievements
- December 2007: 8th overall at SingaporeSingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
half-marathon (1:25:15)
- November 2006: 121st at the New York Marathon (2:40:14) - 38.368 partcipants
- April 2006: 5th. at the BonnBonnBonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
half-marathon (1:14:44) - 2.675 participants
- February 2006: 6th. at the Hong KongHong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
half-marathon (1:16:47) - 9000 participants
- January 2006: 53. at the Mumbai MarathonMumbai MarathonThe Mumbai Marathon is an annual international road running competition over the marathon distance that is held in Mumbai, India, each January. The course records set in 2011 were also the fastest times ever run for the marathon on Indian soil – 2:09:54 by Girma Assefa and 2:26:56 by the women's...
(2:52) - Only 177 of 3000 participants came to the goal in time (5h)
- December 2005: Winner of the SingaporeSingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
half-marathon (1:16:07)
- October 2005: 3rd at the TUI half-marathon in Palma, MallorcaMallorcaMajorca or Mallorca is an island located in the Mediterranean Sea, one of the Balearic Islands.The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Cabrera Archipelago is administratively grouped with Majorca...
(1:15:24)
- September 2005: Winner at the half-marathon in WetzlarWetzlarWetzlar is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany. Located at 8° 30′ E, 50° 34′ N, Wetzlar straddles the river Lahn and is on the German Timber-Framework Road which passes mile upon mile of half-timbered houses. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis on the north edge of...
(01:14:41)
- May 2005: 3rd Place with approx. 4500 participants in the half-marathon in Hannover (1:11:25)
- April 2005 (24 April): New world record in HamburgHamburg-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
: 2:31:31
- April 2005 (17 April): New world record in LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
: 2:32:51
- September 2004: Athens gold and world record over 5,000 m (15:11.07) and 10,000 m (31:37.25)
- May 2004: Boston new fable world record time in the Marathon (2:33:20)
- February 2004: Hong Kong winner and world record in the half marathon (1:10:26)
- December 2003: Singapore silver in road running over 5,000 meters
- October 2003: Panafrican Games gold over 1500 meters
- August 2003: CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
gold over 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters
- May 2003: Winner in the Boston MarathonBoston MarathonThe Boston Marathon is an annual marathon hosted by the U.S. city of Boston, Massachusetts, on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897 and inspired by the success of the first modern-day marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics, the Boston Marathon is the world's oldest...
(2:49:03)
- October 2002: Boston Trophy winner over road running of 5,000 meters
- July 2002: LilleLilleLille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
: two gold medals and world records over 5,000 m (15:17.75) and 10,000 m (32:34.31)
- April 2002: World record and gold in the blind marathon of JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
- January 2002: in CairoCairoCairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
: two gold medals over 800 and 1500 meters, silver over 400 meters
- 2000: Paralympics in Sydney: Winner and the first gold medal over 5,000 meters (15:46.29)
