Top 5 greatest African marathon runners of all time

The idea of a marathon race was first introduced in the 1896 Olympics by Michel Bréal in Athens. Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the International Olympic Committee and regarded as the father of the modern Olympic Games, supported the idea.

The long-distance race is usually run on foot as a road race but can be on track routes. It is usually completed by running or a combination of running and walking. Recently, the wheelchair division has been introduced. There are more than 800 marathons held each year under different competitions.

Marathons are set at 26.2 miles (42. 195 km) as set officially in 1921 by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Before January 2004, world records were not officially recognized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), rather marathon best times were simply recognized as ‘world best’.

The current world record time for the male category was set on September 25, 2022, in the Berlin Marathon by a Kenyan – Eliud Kipchoge, who finished at 2 hours 1 minute and 09 seconds. While the world record for the female category was set on October 13, 2019, in the Chicago Marathon by Brigid Kosgei of Kenya, who finished at 2 hours 14 minutes and 4 seconds, breaking the 16-year record set by Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain at the London Marathon.

Over the years, African athletes have dominated the record table in different marathon competitions. Below we look at the marathon Greatest of All Times from Africa.

Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya)

The Kenyan long-distance runner, born on November 5, 1984, is widely regarded as the greatest marathoner of all time. Born in Kapsisiywa, Nandi County of Kenya, he started his career at a tender age running three kilometers daily to his school – Kaptel Secondary School. He is the current world record holder with a time of 2:01:09 achieved during the 2022 Berlin Marathon. He achieved four fastest marathons out of the six fastest marathons in history.

He has participated in different Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cross Country Championships, World Indoor Championships, Common Wealth Games, and World Marathon Majors.

He has won 14 gold medals, 4 silver medals, and two bronze medals. He won 10 gold medals alone at the World Marathon Majors. He is the third man to successfully defend an Olympic marathon and the third Olympic champion to win back-to-back Olympic marathons after Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia and Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany.

Some of his awards include 2015, 2016, 2017 – AIMS Best Marathon Runner –Men, 2018 – United Nations Kenya Person of the Year, 2019, 2019 – IAAF Male Athlete of the Year, 2019 – BBC Sports Personality World Sport Star of the Year.

He was named among the Top 100 Most Influential Africans in 2019 by the New African magazine. In 2021, he was named the Best Male Athlete Tokyo 2020 Olympics by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC).


Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia)

Haile was born in Ethiopia on April 18, 1973, and retired from active sports in May 2015. The retired track and road long-distance running athlete won 2 Olympic gold medals and 4 World Championship titles – all in the 10,000 meters race. He participated in different Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cross Country Championships, World Indoor Championships, and African Championships, winning 16 medals (10 gold, 3 silver, and 3 bronze).

He came to the limelight at the 1992 World Junior Championship in Seoul, South Korea, where he won the 5,000m and 10,000m races.

Haile set 27 world records and broke 61 Ethiopian national records. In September 2008, he won the Berlin Marathon at age 35 with a world record time of 2:03:59, setting aside his previous world record by 27 seconds. His record was set aside three years later by another Ethiopian, Kenenisa Bekee, with a record time of 2:01:41 at the age of 37.

Shambel Abebe Bikila (Ethiopia)

He was born on August 7, 1932, in Jato, Mendida, of Ethiopia Empire, and died on October 25, 1973. The late marathon runner was the first Ethiopian and African to win a gold medal at the Olympics – a feat he achieved at the 1960 Olympic marathon, where he made history running barefoot. He again won a second gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, making him the first athlete to win back-to-back Olympic marathon titles and the first to successfully defend an Olympic marathon title.

He was once a member of the 5th Infantry Regiment in the Ethiopian Imperial Guard before going into athletics. He participated in 16 different marathon competitions, winning the first position in 12, second position in one, and fifth position in one. He couldn’t finish his last two competitions in 1967 and 1968 due to sports-related injuries.

The only two major events where he won gold medals were the I960 Summer Olympics in Rome and the 1964 summer Olympics in Tokyo. His athletics career ended on March 22, 1969, following a car accident that paralyzed him and kept him in a wheelchair till his death four years later from a cerebral hemorrhage caused by the accident.

Samuel Wanjiru (Kenya)

Samuel was born on November 10, 1986, in Nyahururu, Laikipia County, in Nairobi, Kenya. He is the youngest gold medalist in a marathon race since 1932. Samuel started his career at the Fukuoka Marathon competition in Japan on December 2, 2007. He was the first Kenyan to win Olympic gold in a marathon race – a feat he achieved at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with a record time of 2:06:32.

He set the current World Junior Championship record of 26:41.75 in the 10,000-meter marathon on August 26, 2005, in Brussels, Belgium.

Throughout his career, he won 4 gold medals and 1 silver.

Some of his awards include: Kenyan Most Promising Sportsman of the Year (2005), Kenyan Sportsman of the Year Award (2008), AIMS World Athlete of the Year Award (2008).

Catherine Ndereba

Catherine Ndereba, also known as ‘Catherine the Great,’ is a four-time winner of the Boston Marathon, a two-time winner of the World Championship in Athletics, and a silver medalist at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Born in Kenya on July 21, 1972, she started her career at Ngorano Secondary School.

She participated in two Olympics, three World Championships, and twelve World Marathon Majors. Throughout her career, she won 8 gold medals, 8 silver medals, and 1 bronze – all in major athletics competitions.

In 2001, she set aside the Women’s marathon world record with a record time of 2:18:47 at the Chicago Marathon.

Her other awards include: Kenyan Sportswoman of the Year (2004, 2005), Road Runner of the Year (1996, 1998), and Road Racer of the Year (1996, 1998).

Brigid Kosgei

Brigid is a Kenyan long-distance runner born on February 20, 1994. At the October 2019 Chicago Marathon, she set a new world record for women in a mixed-sex race with a record time of 2:14:04. She won the 2018 and 2019 Chicago Marathons, the 2019 and 2020 London Marathons, and the 2021 Tokyo Marathon.

She started training long-distance at age 17 in her local village Elgeyo-Marakwet County in Kenya, where she grew up. She has participated in about twenty competitions, including two major marathon events, and has won five gold and three silver medals.