Godfrey Kiprotich

Godfrey Chirchir Kiprotich (born 23 November 1964) is a Kenyan former long-distance runner who specialised in road running. He was a team gold medallist at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in 1994, placing fourth to lead a team including Shem Kororia and Andrew Masai to victory.

Career Kiprotich grew up running barefoot and attended St. Patrick's High School – a school renowned for producing successful distance runners. He began competing professionally in 1991. Among his first outings outside of Kenya was in the one hour run in La Flèche, France. His distance of 20,620 m in that time was the third best ever recorded by an athlete within the Commonwealth. He following this with runs of 27:47.94 minutes for the 10,000 metres at the Adriaan Paulen Memorial then 13:33.13 minutes to finish runner-up in the Palio della Quercia 5000 metres. He marked a transition into road running in September that year, coming sixth at the Le Lion Half Marathon.

He competed on the American summer circuit of road races in 1992 and placed in the top three at the Cascade Run Off, Peachtree Road Race, Utica Boilermaker and Bix 7 Road Race. He also won the Parkersburg Half Marathon in a personal best time of 62:34 minutes. The following year he was third at the Hastings Half Marathon and Humarathon, but a return to the United States was less successful. Further half marathon wins in Parkersburg and Orlando, Florida saw him selected for Kenya for the 1994 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. At the end of that year he was runner-up at the Arturo Barrios Invitational and third at the Tulsa Run. His final years in the early 2000s saw him pace at the Chicago Marathon, New York City Marathon, the Los Angeles Marathon, Country Music Marathon and the Dubai Marathon.