Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum, the marathon world record holder, died in a road accident on Sunday, February 11 in his country. In addition to Kiptum, his coach, Rwanda’s Gervais Hakizimana, also died in the accident.
Last October, the Boston Marathon favorite, Kelvin Kiptum exceeded all expectations by breaking the world record previously held by legend Eliud Kipchoge. With a time of 2:00:35, he beat the previous record set in 2022 by almost one minute, and came close to the two-hour mark.
Tributes to the Kenyan prodigy have increased these recent hours. Marathon legend, Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge said he was “deeply saddened”. “He had his whole life ahead of him to achieve excellence,” said the double Olympic marathon champion (2016, 2021), who has his training camp in Kaptagat, not far from the scene of the accident in western Kenya.
Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum (24) was the favorite for the Olympic title at the Paris Olympics marathon this summer.