Centro de medios de NYRR

At the age of 43, five-time Olympian Bernard Lagat made his highly anticipated marathon debut at the 2018 TCS New York City Marathon. He finished in 18th place as the top men's masters athlete in a time of 2:17:20.

Lagat has competed at every summer Olympics on the track since the Sydney 2000 Games, winning silver and bronze over 1500 meters in 2004 and 2000, respectively, when representing Kenya.

In 2012, Lagat finished fourth in the 5000-meter race at the London Olympics, crossing the line 1.33 seconds behind Mo Farah after being tripped during the race. That same year, he was the runner-up to Matthew Centrowitz at the 5th Avenue Mile in New York City. At the most recent Olympics in 2016, he was the oldest member of the U.S. track and field team at age 41, finishing fifth in the 5000-meter final.

Lagat grew up in Kapsabet, Kenya with three brothers and six sisters, running 1.5 miles to and from school each day. After competing at Washington State University, he became a U.S. citizen in 2004 and began competing as an American the following year. In 2007, he became the first American to win an outdoor world championships gold medal over 1500 meters, making it the first Olympic or world championship gold in the event for the U.S. at the time since 1908. He has 11 world championships medals to his name today between the 1500-, 3000-, and 5000-meter distances, including five golds. He is also the American record-holder in all three distances.

Lagat married his college sweetheart, Gladys Tan, and together they have a daughter, Ginna, and a son, Miika. He has lived for more than a decade in Tucson and has been coached by University of Arizona head coach James Li since college; it would be hard to identify a longer and more successful athlete-coach relationship.