(Contemporary news reports stated that he was Henry Rono's brother.) The following year he established himself in his own right by winning steeplechase gold medals at the East and Central African Championships and the inaugural 1979 African Championships in Athletics (where he also claimed a 5000 metres bronze behind Ethiopia's Miruts Yifter and Yohannes Mohamed. His position as one of the world's leading steeplechasers was cemented at the 1979 IAAF World Cup, where he led by fifty metres before the last lap and became the first African man to win the steeplechase at that event.