Marathon world-record holder Kelvin Kiptum, 24, dies in automotive crash

NAIROBI, Kenya — Marathon world record-holder Kelvin Kiptum, who was set to be a celebrity of long-distance operating, was killed alongside together with his coach in a automotive crash in Kenya late Sunday.

Kiptum was 24 and had the world report he set final 12 months on the Chicago Marathon ratified by worldwide observe federation World Athletics simply final week.

He was probably the most thrilling prospects to emerge in street operating in years and was a transparent contender for gold within the marathon on the Paris Olympics in August.

Kiptum, who was Kenyan, and his Rwandan coach Gervais Hakizimana have been killed within the crash at round 11 p.m. One other Kenyan athlete, Milcah Chemos, confirmed their deaths to The Related Press. She was on the hospital mortuary the place the our bodies have been taken and had seen Kiptum’s physique, she mentioned.

She struggled to talk whereas breaking down in tears.

“I’ve no phrases to elucidate the lack of Kelvin,” she mentioned.

The crash occurred on a street between the cities of Eldoret and Kaptagat in western Kenya, Chemos mentioned, within the coronary heart of the high-altitude area that is famend as a coaching base for high distance runners from Kenya and the world over. Kiptum was born and raised within the space.

Chemos mentioned she went to the hospital with different athletes and members of Kiptum’s household after listening to the information. The relations, which included Kiptum’s father, have been there to establish his physique.

Denis Muga, the realm police chief for Kaptagat, mentioned Kiptum was driving and it was the one automotive concerned within the crash.

Kenneth Kimaiyo, a good friend of Kiptum, mentioned he arrived on the crash scene quickly after it occurred and Kiptum had been thrown out of the automotive. It appeared the automotive had veered off the street at excessive pace and collided with a tree earlier than rolling, Kimaiyo mentioned.

A 3rd individual, a girl, was additionally within the automotive and had been taken to the hospital with critical accidents, he mentioned.

Pictures from the scene confirmed the silver automotive with a badly mangled roof and one of many doorways flung open.

The Kenyan observe federation mentioned it was saddened to announce the deaths of Kiptum and Hakizimana.

Kiptum was the primary man to run the marathon in underneath 2 hours, 1 minute in an official race when he set the world report of two:00.35 in Chicago in October, beating the mark of fellow Kenyan and marathon nice Eliud Kipchoge. He set the report in simply his third top-level marathon.

Kiptum and Kipchoge have been anticipated to offer an attractive all-Kenyan battle for marathon gold in Paris. Kiptum was attributable to begin his season on the Rotterdam Marathon in April, which might have been his first occasion since breaking the world report.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe was one of many first to supply his condolences in an announcement on X, previously Twitter.

“We’re shocked and deeply saddened to be taught of the devastating lack of Kelvin Kiptum and his coach, Gervais Hakizimana,” Coe wrote. “On behalf of all World Athletics we ship our deepest condolences to their households, associates, teammates and the Kenyan nation.”

“It was solely earlier this week in Chicago, the place the place Kelvin set his extraordinary marathon World Document, that I used to be in a position to formally ratify his historic time. An unimaginable athlete leaving an unimaginable legacy, we are going to miss him dearly,” Coe wrote.

David Rudisha, Kenya’s two-time Olympic champion within the 800 meters, wrote on X that Kiptum’s dying was “an enormous loss.”

Kiptum had speedy success by operating the quickest time ever by a marathon debutant on the 2022 Valencia Marathon. The next 12 months, he received the London and Chicago races, two of probably the most prestigious marathons on this planet. Whereas younger and new to the circuit, he had already run three of the seven quickest marathon occasions ever recorded.

He was the newest of quite a few high Kenyan runners to die in tragic street accidents.

David Lelei, an All-Africa Video games silver medalist, died in a automotive crash in 2010. Marathon runner Francis Kiplagat was amongst 5 individuals who have been killed in a crash in 2018. Nicholas Bett, who received gold within the 400 meters hurdles on the 2015 world championships, additionally died in a automotive crash in 2018.

Rudisha, former 10,000 meters world champion Moses Tanui and Olympic silver medalist Paul Tergat have all survived critical street accidents.

Samuel Wanjiru, the 2008 Olympic marathon champion who was additionally tipped to be an all-time nice, died in 2011 on the age of 24 after falling from a balcony at his dwelling in Kenya.