Paul Malakwen Kosgei

Paul Malakwen Kosgei (born 22 April 1978, in Marakwet) is a Kenyan long-distance and marathon runner. He first came to prominence in athletics by taking the World Junior Record of 3000m steeple in 1997, and later with consecutive medals at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships from 1998 to 2000. In 1999 he started his technical collaboration with the Italian Coach Renato Canova, that changed his event, looking at longer distances.

He made his debut at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in 2002 and became the surprise world champion for the event. Later that year he became the African champion on the track in the 10,000 metres and also won silver medals at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and 2002 IAAF World Cup. He focused entirely on road running after 2002 and he broke the world record for the 25 km distance, running 1:12:45 in May 2004.

His personal best over the half marathon (59:07 minutes), with which he won the 2006 Berlin Half Marathon, ranks him within the top ten fastest ever over the distance. He began to focus on marathon running and won his first race at the Maratona d'Italia in 2010 with a course record and personal best time of 2:09.00. From 2009 there was a passage of coach, from Renato Canova to Gabriele Nicola, who is a student of the former coach.