Paul Koech, 1998 World Half Marathon Champion has died. The Kenyan cross country champion was a Major with the Kenya Army. Paul Koech was considered Paul Tergat’s biggest cross country rival.
When he joined Arnesens Secondary school for his secondary education between 1984 and 1987, he did not run for the first two years but he resumed racing in his third year when he qualified for the provincial championships 10,000m race.
Training possibilities became even scarcer at Wareng High School where he studied for his Advanced Levels between 1988 and 1989, as he was a day scholar. He moved closer to his dreams when he joined the Armed Forces Training College after a short teaching stint. After training, he was posted to his present base, Kahawa Barracks in 1994.
“My dreams came true here. Although I did not make the Kahawa team that year, I knew that breaking into the athletics world was only a matter of time,” he had said.
In 1996, Koech was third in the Armed Forces Championships, eighth in the nationals and ninth in the Nairobi leg of the IAAF Cross Challenge series. He went to Cape Town for the World Cross where he placed fourth. He placed second in 10,000m Olympic trials and sixth at the Atlanta Olympics.
In 1998 Koech took the silver medal of the men’s long race in Marrakech just behind Paul Tergat. He also displayed great road running talents winning the IAAF Half Marathon Championships in Zurich-Ulster in 60:01 ahead of South Africa’s Hendrick Ramaala and another cross country specialist, Khalid Skah of Morocco.