Japhet Korir
 Japhet Korir at the 2013 World Cross Country Championships |
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| Medal record | ||
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| Men's athletics | ||
Representing  Kenya
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| World Cross Country Championships | ||
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2013 Bydgoszcz | Senior race |
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2013 Bydgoszcz | Senior team race |
Japhet Kipyegon Korir (born 30 June 1993) is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes in cross country running competitions and the 5000 metres. He was the gold medallist at the 2013 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, becoming the youngest ever world cross country champion. He has a personal best of 13:11.44 minutes for the 5000 m track event.
Korir had much success as a junior cross country athlete: he won two team titles and a bronze medal at the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, then took the first junior title at the African Cross Country Championships in 2011. He was the runner-up at the latter event in 2012.
Korir won his first international medal at the age of fifteen at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games, getting a bronze medal in the 5000 metres. He was part of the winning Kenyan junior team at the 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where he finished fifth, and helped retain that title at the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where he came third as part of Kenyan podium sweep. He failed to make the team the following year but was chosen for the 2011 African Cross Country Championships, where he became the competition's first male junior champion. He ran in Europe later that year and set a personal best of 13:17.18 minutes for the 5000 m at the Nijmegen Global Athletics meeting.
He began the 2012 season with a 5000 m personal best of 13:11.44 minutes at the PSD Bank Meeting (moving up to fourth on the all-time junior indoor lists) and had a win at the Eurocross cross country race in Luxembourg. The IAAF World Cross Country Championships changed to a biennial format so was not held and Korir instead competed in the junior section of the 2012 African Cross Country Championships, placing a narrow second behind Ethiopia's Muktar Edris. He failed to make the Kenyan team for the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics in June, having been hurt by a competitor's track spikes, and missed the rest of the season due to an Achilles tendon injury.
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