Gary Kikaya
 Kikaya in 2009 | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality | Congolese | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 4 February 1980 (age 44) Kinshasa, Congo | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 184 cm (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 75 kg (165 lb) | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Country |  Democratic Republic of the Congo | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||
| Event | 400 m | ||||||||||||||
| Club | Tennessee Volunteers, Knoxville | ||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||
| Personal best | 44.10 (2006)[1][2] | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Gary Senga Kikaya (born 4 February 1980) is a retired sprinter from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He competed in the 400 m event at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, but failed to reach the finals.[1]
Education
[edit]Kikaya is the son of Kikaya bin Karubi, a former Information Minister of the Congo, and a former Special Assistant to President Joseph Kabila. At the age of 12 his family moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, where his father served as the Congolese Ambassador to South Africa. Like most Southern African youths, his sporting interests began with rugby and soccer. He attended Queens High School in Johannesburg where he only turned to athletics as a senior in 1999 after watching the World Cup, in Johannesburg, the year before. He achieved the school's highest accolade in the form of a School Honours Blazer. He received a scholarship to study at Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), now the University of Johannesburg (UJ), was thereafter recruited by the University of Tennessee. Kikaya graduated in sociology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Achievements
[edit]- 2002 NCAA champion indoor and outdoor in 400 meters
- 2003 NCAA champion indoor in 400 meters[3]
- 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships – bronze medal
- 2006 Africa Athletics Championship – gold medal
- Kikaya became the fastest non American athlete of all time (11th fastest man over 400m at the time, now joint 34th), running a new African record of 44.10 seconds to come second to Jeremy Wariner at the World Athletics Final 2006 in Stuttgart.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Gary Kikaya Archived 5 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. sports-reference.com
- ^ Gary Kikaya. trackfield.brinkster.net
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ All-time men's best 400 m. alltime-athletics.com
External links
[edit]
African Champions in men's 400 metres | |
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- 1980 births
- Living people
- Sportspeople from Kinshasa
- Democratic Republic of the Congo male sprinters
- Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics
- Olympic athletes for the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists
- 21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo people
- NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners
- Tennessee Volunteers men's track and field athletes
- NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships winners