Yobes Ondieki

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Yobes Ondieki is a former Kenyan 5000 m runner who won the World Championships' gold medal in Tokyo 1991. In the same year he set a temporary Kenyan 5000 m record of 13:01.82 in Zurich. He participated in the Olympic finals of 1988 and 1992 but did not win a medal. Ondieki was known for his demanding training sessions and his ability to run constantly at a high pace. However, he lacked a finishing kick, a weakness exploited by his opponents in the 1992 Olympic 5000m final in Barcelona. (Some will recall that 1992 marked the first and only time that a white man (Dieter Baumann) had won the 5000m Olympic final since Lasse Viren did so in 1976.) In 1993, Ondieki became the first athlete to break the 27-minute-barrier over 10000 m at the Bislett Games in Oslo. Yobes Ondieki married Lisa Martin, an Australian marathon runner. In 1991 they had a baby girl named Emma Ondieki. Today, Yobes and Lisa are divorced, and Yobes is not in contact with Emma.