Kenyan athlete Kelvin Kiptum died in a road accident in central Kenya on Sunday evening. Described as an “extraordinary sportsman” by the Kenyan president, he has held the marathon world record since 2023 (2 hours 00 minutes and 35 seconds).
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Aged 24, marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum, big favorite for the Olympic title at the Paris Games this summer, died on the evening of Sunday February 11 in a road accident in central Kenya.
“The accident occurred around 11 p.m. (8 p.m. GMT). The car had three occupants. Two died instantly while one was taken to hospital,” the commander of Elgeyo Marakwet County Police Peter Mulinge confirming that “the two (dead) are Kiptum and his trainer” Gervais Hakizimana.
“It was Kiptum who was driving towards Eldoret,” he added, adding that he had lost control of the vehicle. “A female passenger was injured and was rushed to hospital.”
“Kelvin Kiptum and his trainer Gervais Hakizimana died in a terrible car accident while returning to training camp,” detailed his agent, former Belgian athlete Marc Corstjens, announcing the “sad news” on Instagram. .
An “extraordinary” sportsman
Kelvin Kiptum made a thunderous irruption into the marathon world, breaking the world record for the discipline in Chicago last October (2 h 00 min and 35 sec), pulverizing the time of his compatriot Eliud Kipchoge by 34 seconds, for the only the third marathon of his career. He had also won the previous two, in Valencia in 2022 and London in 2023.
Read alsoAthletics: Kelvin Kiptum, eternal marathon comet
The Kenyan had announced that he would attempt to become the first man to run an official marathon under the symbolic two-hour mark in Rotterdam on April 14.
Kelvin Kiptum was “an extraordinary sportsman who left an extraordinary mark” in sport, Kenyan President William Ruto said on Monday. He was “without doubt one of the best athletes in the world who broke barriers to set a marathon record”, also estimated the Kenyan head of state in a message posted on the social network Kiptum was our future.”
Kelvin Kiptum was a star. Arguably one of the world’s finest sportsmen who broke barriers to secure a marathon record.
He was only 24 yet, as a hero, triumphed in Valencia, Chicago, London and in other top competitions. His mental strength and discipline were unmatched. Kiptum… pic.twitter.com/Ff7nild1CG
— William Samoei Ruto, PhD (@WilliamsRuto) February 12, 2024
“We are shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the death of Kelvin Kiptum and his coach, Gervais Hakizimana,” reacted the president of the international athletics federation, Sebastian Coe, welcoming in a press release “an extraordinary athlete who leaves a extraordinary legacy. “We will miss him,” he concluded.
“It’s a huge loss,” said Kenyan double Olympic 800m champion (2012, 2016) David Rudisha, saying he was “shocked and deeply saddened” in a message on the social network X.
The Kenyan athletics federation also expressed its “deep sadness”, and the organizing company of the six major marathons (Boston, New York, Chicago, Berlin, London, Tokyo) said it was “devastated by the news”, in messages on X.
A death that echoes other tragedies
The champion lost his life not far from his training routes and his original village of Chepkorio, about forty kilometers from Eldoret, in the Rift Valley, a mecca for Kenyan long-distance running.
He was coached by Rwandan Gervais Hakizimana, who met Kiptum in 2013 during his training stays in Kenya before becoming his full-time coach in 2020.
This death recalls the sudden death of another great Kenyan marathon runner, Samuel Wanjiru, at the same age in 2011, almost three years after his Olympic title in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics. Police concluded it was murder, saying the athlete had fallen from a balcony before being hit in the head with a “blunt object”.
Kenyan athletics was also mourned in October 2021 by the murder of one of its long-distance running hopes Agnes Tirop, found stabbed at the age of 25 in her house in Iten, not far from Eldoret. Her husband is being prosecuted for murder.
With AFP
