Kenya's Paralympic runner Henry Kiprono Kirwa had shown a Beamonesque-like in men's 5,000-meter race T13 (athletes with visual impairment) on Thursday, breaking the world record of the class which laid unchanged for 13 years.
The 35-year-old Kenyan with his own classification of T12 (more severe impairment) has competed with stronger opponents in the race in which he led from the 2,000 meters mark all the way to the finish line in the National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest.
"I was very confident. I knew I could run faster than the others because I trained really hard for a year to come here," said Kirwa, a father of two who knelt down after winning the second gold medal for Kenya in the tournament.
Kirwa finished in 14 minutes and 24.02 seconds, raising the T13 world record up by nearly 50 seconds.
Starting professional training five years ago, Kirwa opened a gap of about 350 meters between him and the second pack when crossing the line.
Different from other fragile records at the ongoing Beijing Paralympic Games, the T13 5,000m world record had been kept after Said Gomez of Panama set it in 1995 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
"I can benefit from the gold because when I get back to my country, my country give me money and I can use the money to do some business and farming," he said. "I can use the money to help other families in Kenya."
As a double silver medallist at the world blind athletics championships in 2006 in the 10,000m and 5,000m class T12, Kirwa won his African champion in 5,000 last year.
He qualified with the first position both in 1,500m and 5,000m T13 class and will run his own T12 10,000m on Sunday.
"This is my first gold medal and I expect more medals," Kirwa said when referring to his expectation to the upcoming 1,500m and 10,000m races.
"The spectators in the stadium are all cheering for me, they push me to run faster to break the world record," he added.
(Xinhua News Agency September 11, 2008)