Athletes - Bernard Lagat

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	Athletes - Bernard Lagat

Bernard Kipchirchir Lagat (born December 12, 1974 in Kapsabet, Kenya) is a middle and long distance athlete.

Lagat attended Washington State University, as had previous athletic greats Henry Rono and Mike Kosgei, from where he graduated in 2000 in management information systems.

Lagat was among those Kenyan athletes along with Richard Limo and Reuben Kosgei who were heavily criticised for missing the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, choosing instead to chase the dollars on offer in the IAAF Golden League.

Lagat pulled out of the 2003 World Championships in Athletics in Paris, France after being told he had tested positive for erythropoietin, (EPO), on August 8 whilst competing in Germany. He was suspended from competition but this was later lifted when a B sample tested negative. On hearing this good news he issued a statement saying "I hope this outcome will also remove any suggestion that I have ever taken drugs."

Kenyan to U.S. citizen

In March 2005 Lagat announced that he had become a naturalized citizen of the United States since May 7, 2004 despite competing for Kenya in the 2004 Summer Olympics. Since Kenya does not allow dual citizenship his silver medal in the 1500m is at stake depending on how Kenya interprets its own laws (as of May 2005 no news on this issue). Due to this switch of nationality Lagat will have to serve a ban from international championship events. For this reason he missed the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki. A similar switch of nationality, in this case Kenyan to Danish, caused Wilson Kipketer to miss the 1996 Olympic Games.

The U.S. does allow dual citizenship and consequently races run by Lagat after May 7th could have been ratified as American records since USATF rules only state that an athlete has to be a U.S. citizen competing in a sanctioned competition to be eligible to set a national record. However, at the 2005 USATF annual meeting, his 3:27.40 win in the 1500 m August, 6th 2004 in Zurich was not ratified as an American record. Nevertheless, they did ratify three records from races he had run in 2005. He got two records from his 3:49.89 indoor mile at Fayetteville, Arkansas on February 11th 2005 including an official 3:33.34 record for the 1500 m on route to the win. These performances replace the records by Steve Scott, 3:51.8 (1981) for the indoor record in the mile and by Jeff Atkinson, 3:38.12 (1989) for the 1500 m indoor record. His winning time of 3:27.40 at Rieti, Italy on August 28th 2005 in the outdoor 1500 m was ratified as a new American record improving the record of 3:29.77, set by Sydney Maree in 1985.

Major achievements

(all 1500 m)

1999
*1999 World Student Games
**gold medal
2000
*2000 Summer Olympics - Sydney, Australia.
**bronze medal
2001
*2001 World Championships in Athletics - Edmonton, Canada.
**silver medal
2002
*2002 1998 IAAF World Cup - Madrid, Spain.
**gold medal
*2002 African Championships - Tunis, Tunisia.
**gold medal
2003
*2003 IAAF World Indoor Championships - Lisbon, Portugal.
**silver medal
2004
*2004 Summer Olympics - Athens, Greece.
**silver medal

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