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NAIROBI, Kenya – Kelvin Kiptum, the marathon world record holder who would become a long-distance running superstar and a leading contender for gold at this year’s Paris Olympics, died along with his coach in a car accident. in Kenya.
His vehicle was the only one involved in the crash Sunday night, and Kiptum was driving when it left the road and fell into a ditch before hitting a tree, police said.
Kiptum, from Kenya, was 24 years old and one of the most exciting prospects to emerge from road racing in years, having broken the world record in just his third appearance in an elite marathon. His record, set at last year’s Chicago Marathon, was ratified by the international athletics federation World Athletics just last week.
His death resonated in Kenya, where runners are the sport’s biggest stars. Kenyans have also become accustomed to tragic stories involving their best athletes after several of them have died in road accidents, other accidents and cases of domestic violence.
“He was only 24 years old,” Kenyan President William Ruto said in a statement offering his condolences. “Kiptum was our future.”
Kiptum and his Rwandan coach, Gervais Hakizimana, died in the accident around 11 p.m., police said. It happened near the town of Kaptagat in western Kenya, in the heart of the high-altitude region that is renowned as a training base for the best long-distance runners in Kenya and around the world.
Kiptum was born and raised in the area.
A third person, a 24-year-old woman, was also in the car and was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, police said. Kiptum and Hakizimana died at the scene.
Athletes and family members, including Kiptum’s father, gathered at the hospital morgue where the bodies of Kiptum and his coach were taken. One of the athletes, former world women’s steeplechase champion Milcah Chemos, struggled to speak as she broke down in tears.
“I have no words to explain the loss of Kelvin,” he said.
Kenneth Kimaiyo, a friend of Kiptum, said he arrived at the scene of the accident shortly after it occurred and that Kiptum had been ejected from the car. The photos showed the silver car with the roof badly smashed and the windshield crushed.
Kiptum was the first man to run the marathon in under 2 hours and 1 minute in an official race when he set the world record of 2:00.35 in Chicago in October, surpassing the mark of fellow Kenyan and marathon great Eliud Kipchoge, who is the current two-time Olympic champion.
Kiptum and Kipchoge were expected to provide an engaging all-Kenyan battle for marathon gold in Paris and Kiptum was due to begin his season at the Rotterdam marathon in April, which would have been his first event since breaking the world record.
“An athlete who had a lifetime ahead of him to achieve incredible greatness,” Kipchoge said in a tribute message.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe was one of the first to offer his condolences in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
“We are shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the devastating loss of Kelvin Kiptum and his coach, Gervais Hakizimana,” Coe wrote.
“It wasn’t until earlier this week in Chicago, the place where Kelvin set his extraordinary marathon world record, that I was able to officially ratify his historic time. “An incredible athlete who leaves an incredible legacy, he will be greatly missed.”
David Rudisha, Kenya’s two-time Olympic champion in the 800 meters, wrote in X that Kiptum’s death was “a great loss.”
Kiptum found immediate success by running the fastest time ever achieved by a marathon debutant at the 2022 Valencia Marathon. The following year he won the London and Chicago races, two of the most prestigious marathons in the world. He set a new record at the London Marathon last April and months later became the world’s fastest marathoner.
Although young and new to the circuit, he had already run three of the seven fastest marathon times ever recorded and was seen as a rare talent.
But he was also the latest Kenyan star to die in devastating circumstances.
David Lelei, a silver medalist at the African Games, died in a car accident in 2010. Marathon runner Francis Kiplagat was among five people who died in a crash in 2018. Nicholas Bett, who won gold in the 400 meters with hurdles at the 2015 African Games world championships, also died in a car accident in 2018.
Rudisha, former world 10,000 meters champion Moses Tanui and Olympic silver medalist Paul Tergat have all survived serious road accidents in the East African country.
Samuel Wanjiru, the 2008 Olympic marathon champion who was also considered one of the all-time greats, died in 2011 at the age of 24 after falling from a balcony at his home in Kenya.
Kenyans were perhaps most shocked when Agnes Tirop, multiple world cross-country champion, was stabbed to death in her home in 2021, allegedly by her husband. He was charged with murder.
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Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.
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