Portland and Rio Will Be Lagat's Final Championships

Published by IAAF on February 2, 2016

All good things must come to an end. A month after turning 41, Bernard Lagat knows that his racing days are numbered.

“After the summer of 2016, I don’t plan to retire, but my track career will be over completely,” said Lagat. “I have to be honest to myself; I’ll be nearly 42 by then so I’ll be very happy to run.”

Lagat has represented his country – initially Kenya and then later the USA – at 15 global championships over the past 16 years. He has taken 13 medals from those championships, five of them gold, but he is not quite finished.

“I want to compete in Portland at my last World Indoors,” said Lagat, who won world indoor gold over 3000m in 2004, 2010 and 2012, plus silver at that distance in 2014 and silver over 1500m in 2003.