[Sly Fox]

Here's a great story from Josh & Jordan's hometown fishwrap with great info on our new friend Sammy:

Liberty stars give running clinic
McDougal, Liberty teammates give clinic on running

By COURTNEY LEWIS
Staff Writer




Sammy Chelanga


Josh McDougal (making an appointment at a barber shop near you soon)

PERU - In his first cross country race, Sammy Chelanga found himself alone in the woods and, concluding he had gotten lost, starting walking back.

It turned out he was all alone because he was so far ahead of the rest of the field.

"When my coach was trying to give me pre-race advice, trying to tell me how to run, the strategy, that made me so scared," the 22-year-old from Kenya said. "I was prepared for like a huge fight, to run so hard. So when the gun went off, I'm sprinting so hard, trying to find a place to run. So like I just kept going, and when I was in the woods, I realized, all these woods, I don't see anybody.

Click Here for Full Story

[olldflame]

So, any word on whether Chelanga will be eligible to run this year?

[PeterParker]

Two things:

Despite having an older brother who is an accomplished marathoner "" Joshua Chelanga won the Rotterdam Marathon in April "" Sammy never thought he'd become a runner, too.

Finally, after high school, his brother chided him one day for not doing much and convinced Sammy to join him and his training partners "" who just happened to include legendary distance runner Paul Tergat.

Tergat, who holds the world record in the marathon, helped Chelanga find a U.S. college to run for.

1. Looks like Liberty may be turning into a little future-marathoner factory...(Speculation that Josh and Sam with his brother and the Tergat connection, along with Cox.)


2. This will be the second LU runner to have world class genes 1 brother and/or friend removed...back in the 90's, one of Cox's contemporaries was Stephen Githuka who, if I'm correct in my recollection, was the brother of an 8K World Record Holder, Peter Githuka. (roads, I believe.)


http://www.running.net/news/crazypreview04.html

July 2, 2004

KINGSPORT, Tenn. - (June 29, 2004) - Last year, Kenya's Linus Maiyo made a valiant effort to dethrone Peter Githuka's long- standing 8K world record, set here in 1996 at the Indian Path Medical Center and SunTrust Bank Crazy 8's 8K Run. Maiyo chased Githuka's record on a hot and sultry night, in a mostly solo effort, and through 3 miles looked like he would succeed in rewriting the record books. However, between miles 3 and 4 there is a hill on Wilcox Drive, appropriately renamed Peter Githuka Hill by race organizers last year. It was here that Maiyo slowed and Githuka's record stood for another year. Maiyo's winning time of 22:11 was the fastest 8K in the world last year, and 5th fastest all-time at Crazy 8's, but was 8 seconds slower than Githuka's world record (22:03).

Having Sam's connection with Tergat is special...perhaps Tergat would come visit his friend and one-time temporary training partner, Sam, and give a convo speech while en route...