BERNARD LAGAT may have been born and raised in Kenya before switching his allegiance to the United States but he is a runner who is impressively clued up on the athletics history of his adopted nation.

"It was in 1908 the last time an American won the 1500 metres at the Olympics," he said last week after completing an early morning training run in the warm winter sun of Tucson in Arizona. "If another American were to win it 100 years later it would have a nice symmetry to it, don't you think?"

Mel Sheppard was the man who crossed the line first at White City all those years ago, one of three gold medals he won on the occasion London staged the Olympics for the first time. One of Sheppard's successors as Olympic 1500m champion was Paavo Nurmi, the first of the Flying Finns, who also won the 5000m at the same Games in Paris in 1924.

It was a double that remained unbeaten for 70 years until Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj achieved it at the Athens Olympics. Finishing second in the 1500m was Lagat. He could have been forgiven for believing that he was always destined to play the bridesmaid, having won a bronze in Sydney four years earlier and the silver at the 2001 world championships.

Those performances were all achieved in the red vest of Kenya but a swop to the red, white and blue of the US marked a dramatic change in fortunes. After making the switch in 2004, Lagat had to serve a period of ineligibility and so was unable to compete in a major event until the world championships in Osaka where he wrote his name alongside Nurmi and El Guerrouj by winning both the 1500m and 5000m.

"To be like Nurmi and El Guerrouj is amazing," said Lagat. "For me it didn't sink in that I had done such a good job for a while. It was a dream come true."

At the age of 33, Lagat is now widely acknowledged as one of the sport's biggest stars. So it is something of a coup for Fast Track, organisers of the Norwich Union International at Kelvin Hall on Saturday, that Lagat has chosen to begin his Olympic preparations by running the 1500m in Glasgow.

Lagat is hoping that will be a good omen. He ran the corresponding meeting 12 months ago and won. "I'm excited to be running there again," he said. "I have very happy memories from last year."

For Lagat, running may have come easily but unlike many of his Kenyan colleagues, he did not see running as a way to grow rich and earn fame.

Growing up on his family's farm in Kapsabet he ran a mile-and-a-half to school each morning, and back home again, but Lagat's heart was in his studies. It was not until he began studying at Jomo Kenyatta University College of Agriculture and Technology that he got serious about sport.

He soon left the university for the US when he received a scholarship from Washington State, famous among Kenyans as the school where the great Henry Rono enjoyed the best period of his career. The school was seeking star African runners, hoping to raise the profile of middle-distance and distance-running in the United States.

Lagat was seeking academic advancement. "Education is important as it gives one something to lean back on, especially in this competitive world of athletics," Lagat said. "Life in the fast lane is very fast in today's world of athletics, and one is not assured of staying in the limelight too long. This is what I can tell my Kenyan brothers."

He earned two degrees in Management Information System and Management Decisions in Science and married a Canadian woman. After retiring from athletics, Sheppard carved out a successful second career as a lawyer during which he defended Bruno Hauptmann, one of the defenders in the infamous Lindbergh case. Lagat has ambitions to be something big in computers but has also started a foundation to assist Kenyan student-athletes with their education financially.

Recent events in Kenya have distressed him, watching them as he was forced to do from afar. While his family luckily avoided most of the problems the death of Lucas Sang, a former 400m runner who represented Kenya in the 1988 Olympics, was a stark reminder that no-one was safe. "I would not claim to know him well but I did meet him," said Lagat. "He was a good man at heart. His smile could light up a room."

It was all so different to his last visit back to Kenya after Osaka when he and Eliud Kipchoge, the runner-up to Lagat in the 5000m, returned to the village where they grew up and there was a party. "They celebrated," said Lagat. "They didn't care that I was running as an American. I feel like a Kenyan but have embraced US culture. I feel comfortable with my situation. I respect Kenya. I am part of a great tradition."

Lagat's career was disrupted in 2003 when he tested positive for the banned substance EPO at a meet in Zurich. A second sample was negative, though, and he was cleared. But he missed the 2003 world championships and several meets as a result. He sued the International Association of Athletics Federations for compensation but the case was thrown out. The affair clearly still rankles with Lagat, but at least the anger has subsided. His focus is solely on the future.

Even Nurmi never tried to repeat his 1500m-5000m double but Lagat has ambitions to do it in Beijing. The chase, however, could be complicated by the fact that under America's draconian selection procedures he would first have to finish in the top three of both events at the trials.

"First of all I have to qualify - which will not be easy," Lagat said. "I will leave my options open. But if I feel good I'll go for it."