Sad news early this morning as I down loaded my e mails and received the very unfortunate news from running friends in Kenya that Olympic Marathon Champion Samuel Wanjiru of Kenya passed away on the 15th May 2011.

He apparently fell from a balcony in his house and died of internal bleeding.

It is still unclear how this accident happened however Mr Federico Rosa, who was "Sammy" Wanjiru's manager has confirmed his death through news sources.

Wanjiru won the Olympic marathon gold medal in Beijing in 2008 with a time of of 2:06:32.  His other marathon victories included Chicago (USA) in 2009 and 2010, Fukuoka (Japan) in 2007, and London Marathon in 2009 amongst many other shorter distant victories and world records.

Wanjiru has had a tough 18 months facing injury as well as personal issues  however the athletics and sports world has lost a young 24 year old runner who in the past 6 years left an impressive footprint in running and was sure to add to this in the future. 

May he rest in peace -

Nico Pannevis

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