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Kiptum, who exploded on to the marathon scene in October, was the frustrating favorite to get the Paris Olympics.
Kelvin Kiptum, Kenya’s entire world report-holding marathon runner, has died in a auto crash.
The demise of the 24-calendar year-old, who was driving in western Kenya on Sunday night when his automobile rolled in excess of, has remaining the globe of athletics in shock.
Kiptum lost control of the auto, and the young operating feeling and his Rwandan mentor, Gervais Hakizimana, were being killed on the place, a neighborhood law enforcement officer explained. A feminine passenger who sustained accidents was rushed to the hospital.
Kiptum exploded onto the marathon scene when he ran a planet document 2:00:35 in Chicago in October, taking 34 seconds off fellow Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge’s former report.
He was just 23 decades old at the time, and competing in only his 3rd marathon. Kiptum also won his other two races: his debut in Valencia in 2022 and a comply with-up in London the next yr.
The Kenyan experienced announced he would endeavor to turn out to be the 1st gentleman to operate an official marathon below the two-hour mark in Rotterdam on April 14.
Kiptum was the too much to handle favourite to just take the gold at the approaching Summer time Olympics in Paris.
Tributes
Tributes poured in next the news of Kiptum’s loss of life.
Globe Athletics remembered him as “one of the most enjoyable new potential customers to emerge in highway working in current years”.
“We are stunned and deeply saddened to find out of the devastating decline of Kelvin Kiptum and his coach, Gervais Hakizimana,” Entire world Athletics President Sebastian Coe claimed in a statement.
“On behalf of all Environment Athletics, we send out our deepest condolences to their people, close friends, teammates and the Kenyan country.”
We are stunned and deeply saddened to understand of the devastating loss of Kelvin Kiptum and his coach, Gervais Hakizimana.
On behalf of all Globe Athletics we ship our deepest condolences to their people, mates, teammates and the Kenyan nation.
It was only earlier this 7 days in… pic.twitter.com/dDBKgjXNKL
— Seb Coe (@sebcoe) February 11, 2024
Coe claimed only past 7 days he had been in Chicago “to formally ratify” Kiptum’s history.
“An unbelievable athlete leaving an extraordinary legacy, we will overlook him dearly.”
Kenyan two-time Olympic 800m champion David Rudisha explained he was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the news.
“This is a huge reduction,” he posted on social media platform X.
Australia’s former globe champion marathon runner Robert de Castella also compensated tribute to the athlete.
“Shocking tragedy! Just like that, a growing superstar is long gone. Highlights how cherished life is, and how vulnerable we all are,” de Castella said.
Kiptum hailed from Chepkorio, a village in the Rift Valley that is the heartland of Kenyan distance running, and exactly where in the end his death happened.
Ten many years ago, hardly a teen, he herded goats and sheep and then commenced following Hakizimana, who is from Rwanda, and other runners as they qualified in the legendary significant-altitude area.
By 2019, Kiptum ran two half-marathons in two weeks, likely 60:48 in Copenhagen and 59:53 in Belfort, France. He began education with Hakizimana, who stayed in Kenya when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
Kiptum’s loss of life is the most recent in a saga of tragedies to hit Kenya’s younger athletics hopefuls.
In 2011, marathon excellent Samuel Wanjiru died at the identical age soon after capturing the Olympic title in 2008 in Beijing.
According to a pathologist, Wanjiru was killed from currently being strike on the head with a blunt item.
In 2021, extensive-distance jogging star Agnes Tirop was discovered stabbed to demise at the age of 25 at her home in Iten, near Eldoret.
Her spouse Ibrahim Rotich went on trial for her murder in November past year. He has denied the cost and was freed on bail just before the trial opened.
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