John Karunga Kagwe (born 9 January 1969) is a Kenyan former long-distance runner who had back-to-back wins at the New York City Marathon from 1997 to 1998.
[1] Kagwe's professional road racing career began in 1994 and he continued to compete at a high level until 2006.
He was inspired by the feats of John Ngugi but the strength of athletes in Kenya forced him to try progressively longer distances.
[3] He competed mainly in the United States and his first race abroad was the Gasparilla Distance Classic in 1994, later that year he ran at the Boston Marathon and placed sixteenth with 2:11:52 hours.
I still have to win a couple more big ones to be the best, or maybe run a minute and a half faster and break the world record.
[2] He is the father of five children, Stephen Karunga, Ephraim Kagwe, Margret Wanjiku, Joseph Mungai and David Chuma.