Richard Chelimo

In 1993 Chelimo broke the world junior and senior 10,000 m world record, in a time of 27:07.91 minutes, in Stockholm. He was to hold the senior world record for only five days before it was broken again by his compatriot Yobes Ondieki. He held the junior record for over 11 years before it was broken by Ugandan Boniface Kiprop Toroitich at a Golden League meeting on 3 September 2004, in a time of 27 min 04.00 s.

Chelimo retired from athletics in 1996; according to his cousin, Kiptanui, he retired after growing despondent following his failure to rise to the very top of the sport. He returned to his old job in the army and put on a lot of weight and began to drink excessively — a decline quite similar to that of Henry Rono. However, his friends Tanui and William Mutwol encouraged him to return to training and get back into shape. Chelimo eventually got back down to within 5 kg of his racing weight. He died of a brain tumour at the age of 29.

At the 1993 world championships in Stuttgart, Germany, Chelimo once again failed to win gold at a major championships. He managed only third place as he could not match the pace of Tanui and, a new star from Ethiopia, Haile Gebrselassie. This was another controversial race as Tanui lost a shoe after Gebreselassie stepped on his heel; the Ethiopian went on to win the race.

Chelimo was selected in the Kenyan senior squad for the 10,000 m at the 1991 world championships, which took place in Tokyo. As Kenya's second runner he was assigned the task of being pacemaker to Moses Tanui. He was successful in dragging Tanui clear of his main rival, Morocco's Khalid Skah, and on the final lap he allowed Tanui to sprint clear to take the gold medal.

Chelimo's first international success was in the junior section of the 1990 world cross country championship in Aix-les-Bains, France, where he took silver. Though Chelimo received little attention due to the Kenyan domination of the event, their team won 10 successive junior titles.

Richard Chelimo (21 April 1972 – 15 August 2001) was a Kenyan long-distance runner, and a former world record holder over 10,000 metres. However, he is best known as the silver medallist in the controversial 10,000m at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. He was also a world junior record holder in the 10,000m.