Born in Lessos, Kenya, Joseph Keter, an officer of Kenyan Army, had only one good season throughout his athletics career, which culminated with an Olympic gold medal.
At Atlanta, the hot favourite to 3000 m steeplechase gold medal was a world record holder Moses Kiptanui. But in the Olympic final, Kiptanui was strongly challenged by his Armed Forces' colleague Keter. The Kenyan pair reached the final water jump side by side, but then Keter slowly edged ahead to win the gold medal by 1.11 seconds.
After the Olympic Games, Keter beat Kiptanui again in Zürich, running his personal best 8.05.99. After that glorious season, Keter kept running for some seasons and won the IAAF Grand Prix in 3000 m steeplechase in 1997.
Olympic medalists in athletics (men) | Olympic Champions in Men's steeplechase
2500 m steeplechase: George Orton | 2590 m steeplechase: Jim Lightbody | 3200 m steeplechase: Arthur Russell
JosephKeter (born June 13, 1969) is a former Kenyan athlete, winner of 3000 m steeplechase at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Born in Lessos, Kenya, JosephKeter, an officer of Kenyan Army, had only one good season throughout his athletics career, which culminated with an Olympic gold medal.
After that glorious season, Keter kept running for some seasons and won the IAAF Grand Prix in 3000 m steeplechase in 1997.
Keter won with a time of 8 minutes 7.12 seconds, with Kiptanui coming in second in 8:08.33.
Kiptanui and Keter have been training together for the last year, but Friday night, instead of helping set the pace on Kiptanui's quest for that elusive Olympic championship, Keter won his unlikely gold.
Keter's best time last year was 8:09.59 and he was ranked 11th in the world, but that only made him the 10th best in Kenya, a nation with a rich reservoir of distance runners.
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