NAIROBI, February 12 – The world marathon record holder for men, Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum, 24, has died in a road accident in his hometown.
He died on Sunday along with his trainer, Rwandan Gervais Hakizimana, in a car on on Eldoret-kaptagat road. Kiptum made progress in 2023 as a challenger to his compatriot Eliud Kipchoge, one of the best marathon runners.
READ Hungary’s president Latalin Novak Resigns
It was in Chicago last October that Kiptum bested Kipchoge, covering 26.1 kilometers (42 miles) in two hours and 35 seconds. The two athletes have been named in Kenya’s provisional marathon team ahead of the Paris Olympics later this year.
Kiptum’s world marathon record was ratified just a week before his demise by the international track federation world athletics. He’s been preparing to kick up his new season at Rotterdam marathon on April 14 of 2024 before joining the Kenyan team to Paris Olympic games.
Paying tribute to Kiptum, Kenyan Sports Minister Ababu Namwamba wrote on X: “This is so sick!! Kenya has lost a special jewel. Free for speech.”
Kenyan opposition leader and former prime minister Raila Odinga said the country had lost a “true hero” and was mourning “a remarkable man… and an icon of Kenyan sport”. Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, said that Kiptum was “an incredible athlete who left behind an incredible legacy, he will be sorely missed.”
The traffic accident happened on Sunday at around 11:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m. GMT), police said, according to the AFP news agency. Giving more details about the accident, the police said that Kiptum was the driver of the car and the car “lost control and overturned, killing the two men instantly.”
An AFP spokesman added that a third passenger, a woman, was injured and “rushed to hospital”. Last week, his team announced that he will attempt to complete the distance in less than two hours during the Rotterdam Marathon – a feat that has never been achieved in an open competition.
The second father to rise to fame quickly: he did not run his first marathon until 2022. He played in his first major tournament four years earlier in modified shoes because he couldn’t afford a pair.
He is part of a new generation of Kenyan athletes who started their careers on the road, breaking the past tradition of athletes starting on the track before going the distance.
“I don’t have the money to travel for the party,” he explained. His coach, Hakizimana, 36, is a retired Rwandan. Last year, he spent a few months helping Kiptum find a world record. Their relationship as coach and athlete began in 2018, but the two met when the world record holder was still young.
“I knew him when he was very young, he used to feed cattle with bare feet,” Hakizimana recalled last year. “It was in 2009, I was training near his father’s farm, he was coming to kill me, I had to chase him.
There after the rest become history, from a chase to record holder theirs became a soul relationship with one being the coach and the other athlete. They have departed together and may their souls rest in eternal peace.
