MZUNGO LIKES... Boaz Cheboiywo

Background: Hailing from Tirap, Kenyra (a village near Eldoret), Boaz began running as a youth as a matter of course and obligation. Within a year of taking up serious running at 19, Cheboiywo had run in the high 3:40s for 1,500 meters and clocked an 8:42 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Before enrolling at Eastern Michigan University, where he garnered seven All-America honors, Cheboiywo trained for a time at the high-altitude camp led by three-time world steeplechase champion Moses Kiptanui. He is coached by Brad Hudson and currently seeking sponsorship. Boaz will gain his US citizenship rights in 2010

College: At EMU, Cheboiywo was the 2001 NCAA Cross Country Champion and placed seventh in the same race in 2002. His first campaign was otherworldly: five races, five wins, five course records. After missing the 2002 indoor season with an achilles injury, he rebounded to become NCAA 10,000-meter champ (running 28:32.10 and lapping more than half of the field) and, in his first season on the boards, took second to Alistair Cragg in the 5,000 meters at the 2003 NCAA Indoor Championships.

He went on to run 27:46.47 at the Cardinal Invitational that spring, but in his 10,000-meter title defense at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, Cheboiywo managed only a 10th-place finish in his second and final season of eligibility (he was a student at Kenya’s Talmbach Teacher’s College before coming to the United States).

Notable Achievements: He notched a 3:57.00 mile at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games in January 2004, and the next month won the 3,000 meters at the Tyson Foods Invitational in 7:38.60, a meet record that remains Cheboiywo’s fastest time for the distance. At this February’s Meyo Invitational in South Bend, Indiana, Cheboiywo — competing in his first race in six months following another Achilles injury — recorded the then-fastest 5,000-meter time in the world in 2005 with a 13:38. He followed this up with a personal-best 13:22.12 at the Mt. SAC Relays in April, and then, at the Prefontaine Classic in May, ran a sterling 8:11.62 for two miles, chasing compatriot and winner Eliud Kipchoge (8:07.68) and American record-setter Alan Webb (second in 8:11.48) to the line.

A week earlier Cheboiywo had set the stage for a fast deuce by running 3:35.20 for 1,500 meters at the Payton Jordan Invitational, placing second to this year’s 800- and 1,500-meter world champion, Rashid Ramzi. In July, he set another personal best in the 5,000 meters at the Bislett Games in Oslo with a 13:19.56 despite a flare-up of an old Achilles problem in the final two kilometers.