Posted on Wed, Apr. 16, 2003

Ala. Distance Runner David Kimani Dies
Associated Press

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Alabama distance runner David Kim ani, a six-time NCAA champion, died Wednesday after collapsing at a university dining hall. He was 25.

The cause of death was not immediately known. Team physician Dr. Jimmy Robinson said Kimani collapsed while eating lunch. He was pronounced dead less than an hour later at DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa .

Kimani, who was from Kenya , led the Crimson Tide to a second-place finish at last year's NCAA Indoor Championships. He won indoor titles at 3,000 and 5,000 meters in 2000 and 2001, as well as the 5,000-meter outdoor championship last season.

He also won the 1999 national cross-country title as a freshman at South Alabama before transferring.

"David was more than just a great athlete but a great person," Alabama track coach Harvey Glance said. "He thrilled the staff, the teammates, the country and the whole world."

"In all my travels, I never heard one bad thing said about David, and that's a true testament to him and his life," Glance added. "He always had a smile and a positive attitude, but was the fiercest competitor I've ever laid eyes on.

"His heart was bigger than this state."

Kim ani had said running was his ticket out of poverty in a Kenyan community where he said was the first to graduate from high school.

It took a full year for Kimani to take the SAT and get cleared to attend South Alabama , where he set six school records as a freshman. Kimani then transferred to Alabama and was granted a release from his scholarship so he wouldn't have to sit out a year.

"David had a profound impact on the international track scene," Alabama athletic director Mal Moore said.

Kim ani didn't start running competitively until 1997, having grown up playing volleyball and soccer. He once said most of the people he grew up with had trouble imagining him as a runner.

But he added: "They never saw me run."

Kimani is survived by his wife, Chamis, who is from Mobile .