Career
Kigen was born in Keiyo District. He graduated in 2005 from the Simotwo High School in Ainabkoi, Keiyo District. He is based at the PACE Sports Management training camp in Kaptagat.
Kigen's breakthrough year came in 2006 when he represented Kenya internationally at three competitions. He was fifth at the 2006 IAAF World Cross Country Championships – a placing that brought him a gold medal with the Kenyans in the team competition. He set a personal best of 12:58.58 in the 5000 metres at the Bislett Games in Oslo and became the national champion over the distance.
This earned him selection for the 2006 African Championships in Athletics in Bambous, where he scored a silver medal in his preferred distance before going on to win another silver through a personal best of 28:03.70 in the 10,000 metres event. He was not as successful at the 2006 IAAF World Athletics Final, taking seventh in the 5000 m, but his track form returned at the 2006 IAAF World Cup as he took his second 5000 m silver of the year representing Africa. His career was then disrupted at the end of the season by a severe knee injury in November.
He returned to competition in 2007, but it was in 2008 that he began to regain his form. He won the Great Capital Run in July 2008, recording a course record of 28:42 minutes. At the 2008 IAAF World Athletics Final he ran in the 3000 metres and took fourth place. The following year he attended the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Final (the last edition of the event) and was eleventh over 5000 m.
He started the 2010 cross country running season well, with win at the IAAF permit meeting Antrim International Cross Country and the Crosse Oeust-France. He followed this with another win at the San Sebastián Cross Country but he was not selected for the Kenyan team for the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. He set a best of 28:09 over 10 km at the Parelloop race in Brunssum in March, coming fourth behind Berhanu Delale. He ran at the Grand 10 Berlin in October and took second place in largely Kenyan affair, finishing with a new personal best of 27:25 for the 10K distance. He returned to the cross country circuit in November, taking third at both the Tuskys Cross Country meet in Kenya and Cross de l'Acier in France. He also won in Antrim the following January, retaining his title.
He was not included in the Kenyan World Cross Country squad and ran his half marathon debut instead at the Lisbon Half Marathon, coming fifth with a time of 1:00:49. Following this he was runner-up to Micah Kogo at the Parelloop in April. He competed on the 2011 IAAF Diamond League circuit, but did not finish higher than seventh place. He did, however, set a 10,000 m best of 27:30.53 minutes at the Memorial Van Damme. Kigen dipped under the hour mark for the first time at the Delhi Half Marathon, and his time of 59:58 minutes was just one second behind the winner Lelisa Desisa.
He began 2012 with his third straight win in Antrim and a second career victory at the Cross de San Sebastián.
Read more about this topic: Mike Kigen
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“The 19-year-old Diana ... decided to make her career that of wife. Today that can be a very, very iffy line of work.... And what sometimes happens to the women who pursue it is the best argument imaginable for teaching girls that they should always be able to take care of themselves.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“I doubt that I would have taken so many leaps in my own writing or been as clear about my feminist and political commitments if I had not been anointed as early as I was. Some major form of recognition seems to have to mark a woman’s career for her to be able to go out on a limb without having her credentials questioned.”
—Ruth Behar (b. 1956)
“The problem, thus, is not whether or not women are to combine marriage and motherhood with work or career but how they are to do so—concomitantly in a two-role continuous pattern or sequentially in a pattern involving job or career discontinuities.”
—Jessie Bernard (20th century)