Benson Barus
Encyclopedia
Benson Kipchumba Barus (born 4 July 1980) is a Kenya
n long-distance runner who competes in marathon
and half marathon
competitions. He has a personal best of 2:07:07 hours for the distance, set at the 2011 Prague Marathon, which he won. He also won the 2009 Turin Marathon
and has placed top three in Rome
, Beijing
and Chuncheon
.
He was the 10,000 metres World Junior Champion in 1998. Based in Italy, working with Federico Rosa and Claudio Berardelli, Barus has won numerous road races in the country, including the Giro di Castelbuono
, Giro Media Blenio
, Udine Half Marathon and Roma-Ostia Half Marathon
. His best for the half marathon is 59:41 minutes.
, capital of the Rift Valley Province, Benson Barus is of the Tugen ethnic group, which has also produced runners including Paul Tergat
. Barus had his first success as a teenager competing at the junior level, taking the gold medal
over 10,000 metres at the 1998 World Junior Championships in Athletics
. He began to focus on road running
competitions and, being managed by Italian Federico Rosa and trained by Claudio Berardelli, he ran in a number of races in Italy. He had consecutive victories at the Amatrice-Configno race in 2000 and 2001, and also took three straight wins at the Giro di Castelbuono
from 2000 to 2002. He was the winner of the 10.5 km race at the 2001 Miglianico Tour. Running at the 2001 Kenyan Championships, he achieved a personal best of 28:09.32 minutes over 10,000 m on the track, but this was not enough to make the team for the 2001 World Championships in Athletics
as he came fifth overall.
Barus had a series of circuit wins in Italy in early 2002, claiming first place at the Montefortiana Turà, Corrida di San Geminiano, Trofeo Sant'Agata, Vivicittà Firenze 12K, Giro Media Blenio
, and the Luzerner Stadtlauf. A 10K best of 27:52 minutes came at a race in Gualtieri
in April 2003 and this proved to be one of the fastest runs by any athlete in the world that year. He won Cesena
's Notturna di San Giovanni 10K race later that year. He served as the pacemaker for the Carpi Marathon
that October, leading up to the half-way point. Returning to competitive racing the next year, Martin Lel
beat him into second place at the 2004 Trofeo Sant'Agata, but he defeated all opposition at the Corrida di San Geminiano race. He won the 25th edition of the Golden Shoe 8 km Road Race in April. Barus made his debut over the half marathon distance at the 2004 Udine Half Marathon and he set a best of 1:01:31 hours, taking fourth.
He won in a course record time of 1:01:14 at the 2005 Nice Half Marathon. After taking pacemaking duties at the City-Pier-City Loop
, He set bests at the Berlin Half Marathon
(fourth in 60:57 min) and the Rotterdam Half Marathon
(fourth in 60:17 min). A month after his race in Rotterdam, he made his marathon debut at the Milano City Marathon and established himself as a top competitor in the event, taking the runner-up spot behind Benson Kipchumba Cherono in a time of 2:08:33 hours. It was the fastest marathon race in the country that year.
He took back-to-back wins over the half marathon in February the next year, taking the title at the Eldoret Half Marathon in Kenya and then the Roma-Ostia Half Marathon
. He made his second outing over the full distance at the JoongAng Seoul Marathon
in November and recorded another sub-2:10 time, being edged into fourth place by Ethiopian Yerefu Berhanu. In 2008 he served as the pacemaker for the Rome City Marathon
, a run which was his preparation for the Paris Marathon
the month after, where his time of 2:09:23 brought him ninth in a high quality field. He completed his first half marathon under an hour to win the Udine race and his course record of 59:41 minutes ranked him as the eleventh fastest runner that year. His next marathon came in Frankfurt
and he remained consistent in his time, recording 2:08:57 for fifth in a Kenyan sweep of the top fourteen.
He paced the field in course record time at the 2009 Brescia Marathon, going on to win the Turin Marathon
in rainy conditions. He retained his title at the Udine Half Marathon in September and at the Beijing Marathon
he yet again dipped under 2:09, coming third behind Samuel Mugo and Nicholas Manza. He was among the favourites for the 2010 Rome Marathon and came second behind Siraj Gena
. Attempting a third straight win, he entered the Udine Half Marathon, but he had to settle for the runner-up spot behind William Chebor. He headed to Korea for October's Chuncheon Marathon
and he had his third second place finish of the year, finishing behind Benjamin Kiptoo Kolum. He ran at the Virginia Beach Half Marathon as preparation for the Beijing Marathon
the following month. He won over the shorter distance in a time of 1:02:22 hours and placed top three in the Chinese marathon.
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
n long-distance runner who competes in marathon
Marathon
The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres , that is usually run as a road race...
and half marathon
Half marathon
A half marathon is a road running event of . It is half the distance of a marathon and usually run on roads. Participation in half marathons has grown steadily recently. One of the main reasons for this is that it is a challenging distance, but does not require the same level of training that a...
competitions. He has a personal best of 2:07:07 hours for the distance, set at the 2011 Prague Marathon, which he won. He also won the 2009 Turin Marathon
Turin Marathon
The Turin Marathon is an annual marathon race which takes place in Turin, Italy in November. The first edition of the modern race was held in 1987, although other marathon competitions have been held in the city prior to this, including sporadic races in the 1970s and early 1980s, and the earliest...
and has placed top three in Rome
Rome City Marathon
The Rome Marathon is an annual marathon competition hosted by the city of Rome, Italy on a Sunday of March.The competition has also doubled as the Italian Marathon championships on two occasions; in 1983 and 1986. The race date was shifted from the traditional March schedule to 1 January in 2000...
, Beijing
Beijing Marathon
The Beijing International Marathon is an annual marathon race of 42.195 km held in October in Beijing, People's Republic of China. The race was first held in 1981 and has been held every year since. The race begins at Tiananmen Square and finishes at the National Olympic Sports Centre stadium...
and Chuncheon
Chuncheon Marathon
The Chuncheon International Marathon is an annual marathon race which is held in late October in the city of Chuncheon, South Korea. First held in 1946, it is the second oldest marathon in the country after the Seoul International Marathon...
.
He was the 10,000 metres World Junior Champion in 1998. Based in Italy, working with Federico Rosa and Claudio Berardelli, Barus has won numerous road races in the country, including the Giro di Castelbuono
Giro di Castelbuono
The Giro di Castelbuono is an annual road running competition over 10 kilometres which takes place in Castelbuono, on the island of Sicily, Italy...
, Giro Media Blenio
Giro Media Blenio
The Giro Media Blenio is an annual road running event over 10 kilometres which takes place in April in the village of Dongio, Switzerland. It was created in honour of Markus Ryffel's silver medal in the 5000 metres at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics....
, Udine Half Marathon and Roma-Ostia Half Marathon
Roma-Ostia Half Marathon
The Roma-Ostia Half Marathon is an annual half marathon road running event which takes place in late February in Rome, Italy. The course begins in the EUR district of the city and follows a direct south-easterly route to the finish point near the beaches of Ostia...
. His best for the half marathon is 59:41 minutes.
Career
Born in NakuruNakuru
Nakuru, the provincial capital of Kenya's Rift Valley province, with roughly 300,000 inhabitants, and currently the fourth largest urban centre in the country, lies about 1850 m above sea level...
, capital of the Rift Valley Province, Benson Barus is of the Tugen ethnic group, which has also produced runners including Paul Tergat
Paul Tergat
Paul Kibii Tergat is a Kenyan professional long distance runner. He held the world record in the marathon from 2003 to 2007, with a time of 2:04:55, and is regarded as one of the most accomplished long-distance runners of all time.Now concentrating exclusively on the marathon, Tergat won many...
. Barus had his first success as a teenager competing at the junior level, taking the gold medal
Gold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
over 10,000 metres at the 1998 World Junior Championships in Athletics
1998 World Junior Championships in Athletics
The 1998 World Junior Championships in Athletics is the 1998 version of the World Junior Championships in Athletics. It was held in Annecy, France from July 28 to August 2, 1998.-Men:-Women:-Medals table:...
. He began to focus on road running
Road running
Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road . These events would be classified as long distance according to athletics terminology, with distances typically ranging from 5 kilometers to 42.2 kilometers in the marathon. They may involve large numbers of runners...
competitions and, being managed by Italian Federico Rosa and trained by Claudio Berardelli, he ran in a number of races in Italy. He had consecutive victories at the Amatrice-Configno race in 2000 and 2001, and also took three straight wins at the Giro di Castelbuono
Giro di Castelbuono
The Giro di Castelbuono is an annual road running competition over 10 kilometres which takes place in Castelbuono, on the island of Sicily, Italy...
from 2000 to 2002. He was the winner of the 10.5 km race at the 2001 Miglianico Tour. Running at the 2001 Kenyan Championships, he achieved a personal best of 28:09.32 minutes over 10,000 m on the track, but this was not enough to make the team for the 2001 World Championships in Athletics
2001 World Championships in Athletics
The 8th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada between 3 August and 12 August and was the first time the event had visited North America...
as he came fifth overall.
Barus had a series of circuit wins in Italy in early 2002, claiming first place at the Montefortiana Turà, Corrida di San Geminiano, Trofeo Sant'Agata, Vivicittà Firenze 12K, Giro Media Blenio
Giro Media Blenio
The Giro Media Blenio is an annual road running event over 10 kilometres which takes place in April in the village of Dongio, Switzerland. It was created in honour of Markus Ryffel's silver medal in the 5000 metres at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics....
, and the Luzerner Stadtlauf. A 10K best of 27:52 minutes came at a race in Gualtieri
Gualtieri
Gualtieri is a comune in the Province of Reggio Emilia in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 70 km northwest of Bologna and about 25 km north of Reggio Emilia on the right bank of the Po River...
in April 2003 and this proved to be one of the fastest runs by any athlete in the world that year. He won Cesena
Cesena
Cesena is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, south of Ravenna and west of Rimini, on the Savio River, co-chief of the Province of Forlì-Cesena. It is at the foot of the Apennines, and about 15 km from the Adriatic Sea.-History:Cesena was originally an Umbrian...
's Notturna di San Giovanni 10K race later that year. He served as the pacemaker for the Carpi Marathon
Carpi Marathon
The Italian Marathon memorial Enzo Ferrari is an annual marathon race in Italy which begins in Maranello and finishes in Carpi. Its inaugural event was held in 1988...
that October, leading up to the half-way point. Returning to competitive racing the next year, Martin Lel
Martin Lel
Martin Kiptolo Lel is a Kenyan long distance and marathon runner. He won the London Marathon in 2005, 2007, and 2008, the New York City Marathon in 2003 and 2007 and the Great North Run in 2007 and 2009. His personal best time, , is 2:05:15, which he ran in the 2008 London Marathon setting a...
beat him into second place at the 2004 Trofeo Sant'Agata, but he defeated all opposition at the Corrida di San Geminiano race. He won the 25th edition of the Golden Shoe 8 km Road Race in April. Barus made his debut over the half marathon distance at the 2004 Udine Half Marathon and he set a best of 1:01:31 hours, taking fourth.
He won in a course record time of 1:01:14 at the 2005 Nice Half Marathon. After taking pacemaking duties at the City-Pier-City Loop
City-Pier-City Loop
The CPC Loop Den Haag is an annual half marathon competition held in the Hague, Netherlands, every mid-March....
, He set bests at the Berlin Half Marathon
Berlin Half Marathon
Berlin Half Marathon is an annual half marathon race held in early Spring in Berlin, Germany. The race was first held in 1984. A total of 23,799 runners took part in the half marathon in 2010...
(fourth in 60:57 min) and the Rotterdam Half Marathon
Rotterdam Half Marathon
The Rotterdam Half Marathon was an annual half marathon race over 21.1 kilometres, that was staged in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on the second Sunday in September. The event was contested from 2004 to 2009. It was discontinued in 2010 due to lacking participation.- Winners :-External links:* from...
(fourth in 60:17 min). A month after his race in Rotterdam, he made his marathon debut at the Milano City Marathon and established himself as a top competitor in the event, taking the runner-up spot behind Benson Kipchumba Cherono in a time of 2:08:33 hours. It was the fastest marathon race in the country that year.
He took back-to-back wins over the half marathon in February the next year, taking the title at the Eldoret Half Marathon in Kenya and then the Roma-Ostia Half Marathon
Roma-Ostia Half Marathon
The Roma-Ostia Half Marathon is an annual half marathon road running event which takes place in late February in Rome, Italy. The course begins in the EUR district of the city and follows a direct south-easterly route to the finish point near the beaches of Ostia...
. He made his second outing over the full distance at the JoongAng Seoul Marathon
JoongAng Seoul Marathon
The JoongAng Seoul Marathon is an annual footrace that takes place in Seoul, South Korea, usually in early November. First held in 1999, the race was established as a commemoration of Olympic marathon race which was held as part of the 1988 Seoul Olympics. It features a men's marathon elite race,...
in November and recorded another sub-2:10 time, being edged into fourth place by Ethiopian Yerefu Berhanu. In 2008 he served as the pacemaker for the Rome City Marathon
Rome City Marathon
The Rome Marathon is an annual marathon competition hosted by the city of Rome, Italy on a Sunday of March.The competition has also doubled as the Italian Marathon championships on two occasions; in 1983 and 1986. The race date was shifted from the traditional March schedule to 1 January in 2000...
, a run which was his preparation for the Paris Marathon
Paris Marathon
The Paris International Marathon is an annual marathon which takes place from the Champs-Élysées heading towards the Place de la Concorde and continuing through the city to finish at Foch Avenue....
the month after, where his time of 2:09:23 brought him ninth in a high quality field. He completed his first half marathon under an hour to win the Udine race and his course record of 59:41 minutes ranked him as the eleventh fastest runner that year. His next marathon came in Frankfurt
Frankfurt Marathon
Frankfurt Marathon is an annual marathon held in Frankfurt, Germany in the month of October. The race, currently sponsored by BMW, is Germany's oldest city marathon.- List of winners :Key:- External links :***...
and he remained consistent in his time, recording 2:08:57 for fifth in a Kenyan sweep of the top fourteen.
He paced the field in course record time at the 2009 Brescia Marathon, going on to win the Turin Marathon
Turin Marathon
The Turin Marathon is an annual marathon race which takes place in Turin, Italy in November. The first edition of the modern race was held in 1987, although other marathon competitions have been held in the city prior to this, including sporadic races in the 1970s and early 1980s, and the earliest...
in rainy conditions. He retained his title at the Udine Half Marathon in September and at the Beijing Marathon
Beijing Marathon
The Beijing International Marathon is an annual marathon race of 42.195 km held in October in Beijing, People's Republic of China. The race was first held in 1981 and has been held every year since. The race begins at Tiananmen Square and finishes at the National Olympic Sports Centre stadium...
he yet again dipped under 2:09, coming third behind Samuel Mugo and Nicholas Manza. He was among the favourites for the 2010 Rome Marathon and came second behind Siraj Gena
Siraj Gena
Siraj Amda Gena, also known as Giday Amha and Siraj Amda Bene, is an Ethiopian long distance runner who specialises in the marathon...
. Attempting a third straight win, he entered the Udine Half Marathon, but he had to settle for the runner-up spot behind William Chebor. He headed to Korea for October's Chuncheon Marathon
Chuncheon Marathon
The Chuncheon International Marathon is an annual marathon race which is held in late October in the city of Chuncheon, South Korea. First held in 1946, it is the second oldest marathon in the country after the Seoul International Marathon...
and he had his third second place finish of the year, finishing behind Benjamin Kiptoo Kolum. He ran at the Virginia Beach Half Marathon as preparation for the Beijing Marathon
Beijing Marathon
The Beijing International Marathon is an annual marathon race of 42.195 km held in October in Beijing, People's Republic of China. The race was first held in 1981 and has been held every year since. The race begins at Tiananmen Square and finishes at the National Olympic Sports Centre stadium...
the following month. He won over the shorter distance in a time of 1:02:22 hours and placed top three in the Chinese marathon.
External links
- Career biography at Rosa & Associati
- Profile at Marathon Info