fullname coach event club headercolor birth_place weight height pb sport birth_date residence article_title name
francis chepsiror kirwa timo vuorimaa marathon lahden ahkera -lrb- fin -rrb- lightblue rift valley province , kenya 60 kg lb 0 on 1.81 0 on '' -rrb- ` marathon '' ' : 2:11:01 -lrb- 2008 athletics 28 november 1974 lahti , finland francis kirwa
 francis kirwa
francis kirwa

francis chepsiror kirwa -lrb- born november 28 , 1974 in rift valley province , kenya -rrb- is a finnish marathon runner of kenyan origin .
in 2005 , he adopted finnish nationality in order to compete internationally in the marathon , and run for his home nation at the iaaf world championships in helsinki .
he also set a personal best of 2:11:01 by winning the gold medal at the maratona sant ' antonio in padua , italy .
kirwa represented his adopted nation finland at the 2008 summer olympics in beijing , where he competed for the men 's marathon .
he successfully finished the race in fourteenth place by twenty-two seconds behind spain 's josé manuel martínez , outside his personal best time of 2:14:22 .
kirwa currently resides in lahti , since he left from kenya in 2002 .
he also trains full-time for marathon and cross-country races at lahden ahkera , under his personal and head coach timo vuorimaa .
