U. of Alabama track star David Kimani, 25, dies

Jet, May 12, 2003

University of Alabama star distance runner David Kimani, a six-time NCAA champion, recently died after he collapsed at a university dining hall. He was 25.

At JET press time, the cause of death was not 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 he transferred. Kimani 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.