Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Associated Press
NAIROBI, Kenya - Noah Ngeny, who upset Hicham El Guerrouj to win the 1,500-meter gold medal at the Sydney Olympics, retired because of recurring back and pelvis problems from 2001 car accident in Kenya.
"The last few years have been frustrating," he said. "I have spent more time on the physiotherapy table than in my spikes."
The 28-year-old Kenyan has not competed much since the crash and failed to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympics, where El Guerrouj of Morocco won the 1,500 and 5,000.
At the 2000 Sydney Games, Ngeny overtook El Guerrouj in the final meters to win the 1,500 in an Olympic record time of 3 minutes, 32.07 seconds. El Guerrouj was left sobbing on the track. Ngeny had pushed El Guerrouj in a half-dozen other races, but had never beaten him until then.
"The Olympic gold medal was definitely the highlight of my running career," Ngeny said.
In 1999, Ngeny broke Sebastian Coe's 18-year-old world record in the rarely run 1,000 meters in Rieti, Italy. His time of 2:11.96 still stands.