When the accident occurred, the Kenyan athlete and his coach were inside the vehicle. The coach was also died
Olympic champion and current world record holder for marathons, Kelvin Kiptum, passed away in a car accident in western Kenya on Monday, according to authorities. Around 11 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Sunday, the 24-year-old was traveling from Kaptagat to Eldoret when the automobile rolled, killing both the young talent and his Rwandan coach Gervais Hakizimana. “Of the three people inside the car, two passed away instantly and one was hospitalized. The two are Kiptum and his coach, according to Peter Mulinge, the western Kenyan county’s police chief where the accident took place in Elgeyo Marakwet.
“Kiptum was driving toward Eldoret when the car rolled and lost control, instantly killing the two. “A female passenger has been injured and taken to the hospital immediately,” he informed the press.
In October, Kiptum made waves in the marathon world when he broke the record with a time of 2:00:35 in Chicago, beating fellow Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge by 34 seconds.
At the time, he was only twenty-three years old and running in his third marathon.
In his two subsequent attempts, which were in London the following year and his debut in Valencia in 2022, Kiptum also prevailed.
On April 14, the Kenyan had declared he will try to break the record by being the first guy to finish an official marathon in less than two hours in Rotterdam.
For the Summer Olympics in Paris in 2024, he was the clear favorite.
Kiptum was hailed by World Athletics as “one of the most exciting new prospects to emerge in road running in recent years”.
“We are shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the devastating loss of Kelvin Kiptum and his coach, Gervais Hakizimana,” stated Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics, in a statement.
“On behalf of all World Athletics, we send our deepest condolences to their families, friends, teammates and the Kenyan nation.”
“Amazing athlete” Coe claimed to have visited Chicago “just last week” “to officially ratify” Kiptum’s historic moment.
“An incredible athlete leaving an incredible legacy, we will miss him dearly.”
David Rudisha, the two-time Olympic 800-meter champion from Kenya, expressed his amazement and sadness at the news.
He wrote, “This is a huge loss,” on the social networking site X, which was once Twitter.
Athletics Kenya extended condolences to “the entire athletics community during this difficult time” while Kiptum’s agent, Marc Corstjens, also confirmed the “sad news”.
The birthplace of Kenyan distance running, Chepkorio, is where Kiptum was born and raised. It is also where he eventually met his demise.
When he was barely a teenager ten years ago, he started herding goats and sheep before joining Rwandan runner Hakizimana and other runners as they trained in the fabled high-altitude area.
In 2019, Kiptum completed two half-marathons in a span of two weeks, clocking times of 60:48 in Copenhagen and 59:53 in Belfort, France. Hakizimana, who remained in Kenya during the Covid-19 outbreak, was his trainer when he started.
The latest tragedy to befall Kenya’s young athletes is the passing of Kiptum.
Samuel Wanjiru, a legendary Kenyan marathon runner who won the Olympic title in 2008 in Beijing, passed away in 2011 at the same age.
Wanjiru died as a result of being struck in the head by a blunt instrument, a pathologist reported.
In 2021, long-distance running star Agnes Tirop was found stabbed to death at the age of 25 at her house in Iten, near Eldoret.
Her husband Ibrahim Rotich went on trial for her murder in November last year. He has denied the charge and was freed on bail just before the trial opened.
