champion, had only been defeated once since the previous Olympics, and was the overwhelming favourite. The two rivals led the race going into the last lap of the final, El Guerrouj leading Ngeny. With less than 100 m to go, Ngeny started moving next to the leader, grabbing the lead with just 15 m to go. He held on until the finish line, causing one of the greatest upsets at the Sydney Olympics. In the process, Ngeny set an Olympic record of 3:32.07, surpassing Sebastian Coe's Olympic record of 3:32.53, set in 1984. El Guerrouj settled for silver in 3:32.32 and Ngeny's compatriot Bernard Lagat, another Kenyan runner at that time, later a US citizen, took bronze in 3:32.44. Ngeny became the third Kenyan to win the 1500 m crown following Kip Keino (1968 Mexico City Olympics) and Peter Rono (1988 Seoul Olympics). The year 2000 was the highlight of Ngeny's running career. He posted career bests of 1:44.49 for 800 m (28 July 2000 in Oslo) and 3:28.12 for 1500 m (at the Weltklasse Zürich on 11 August 2000), en route to his Olympic triumph (29 September 2000). As of October 2019, his career best time of 3:28.12 at Zürich makes him the sixth-fastest 1500 m runner of all time, behind El Guerrouj, Lagat, Noureddine Morceli, Silas Kiplagat and Asbel Kiprop. After Sydney Ngeny was dropped from the Kenyan team for the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton after defying instructions from the national federation to return home from Britain where he trains. Ngeny returned to Australia in 2001 to win the Goodwill Games Mile in Brisbane. A car crash in Kenya in November of that year put him out of action for much of the winter. The injury sustained in the car accident (injury to the back and pelvis) dogged Ngeny ever since. He competed sparsely in 2003 and 2004 recording a best time of 3:33.38 but failing in his attempt to qualify for the Kenyan Olympic team, and was not able to defend his title in Athens. Ngeny did not run at the Kenyan trials for the 2003 World Championships because of the injuries. Ngeny announced his official retirement from international athletics on 22 November 2006. After retirement, he has been an athletics coach for Kenya Defence Forces. Ngeny would eventually become an athletes' representative for Kenya. In 2016, he quit his post in protest of the poor