Kenyan athlete Kelvin Kiptum, who died on Sunday in a road accident, stunned the running world by achieving the feat of seizing the marathon world record in Chicago last October.
Still unknown two years ago, Kiptum made a sensational breakthrough on the marathon world by seizing the world record on only his third attempt, in 2 hours 0 minutes and 35 seconds in Chicago, faster than his compatriot Eliud Kipchoge , athletics legend. Kiptum’s death at the age of 24, when glory seemed promised to him this year, is as brutal as his rise had been.
Kiptum had warned that he would try to be the first man to run an official marathon in less than two hours in Rotterdam on April 14. He had not given a bib since, but planned to return to competition in April in Rotterdam with the idea of breaking the two-hour mark. He was also the huge favorite for the Paris Olympics marathon.
Heir of Kipchoge
The image will remain that of a slender athlete (1.78 m, 59 kg), flying with a powerful stride on the asphalt of Chicago last October, even accelerating in the second part of the race, where most of the marathon runners all levels are weakening. All this allowed him to beat the world record (then 2 hours, 1 minute and 9 seconds by Kipchoge), less than a year after his first attempt at the distance in Valencia, in December 2022 (2 hours 1 minute and 53 seconds).
In the meantime, Kiptum had confirmed his extraordinary talent by crushing the venerable London marathon in April 2023 in 2 hours 1 minute and 25 seconds, then the second time in history.
His crazy trajectory opposed that of the greatest runner in history, Eliud Kipchoge, against whom he never raced.
Kipchoge, aged 39, double Olympic champion and now former record holder of the world, had triumphed after a career built step by step, first on the track until he was 27. He is aiming for a third Olympic title in Paris this summer.
Kelvin Kiptum was training near his home village, Chepkorio, about forty kilometers from Eldoret, the mecca of Kenyan running.
He was guided in particular by the Rwandan Gervais Hakizimana, French resident, national level runner who had met Kiptum during his training stays in Kenya, who also died on Sunday in the road accident. A third occupant, injured, was hospitalized. Kenyan police have not released his identity.
“Run, eat, sleep”
“When we did hill climbing sessions in the forest near his home, he was small, but followed us, barefoot, after tending the goats and sheep. It was in 2013, he hadn’t really started running yet,” Gervais Hakizimana told Agence France-Presse in October.
Kiptum started running regularly in 2016. In 2019, he managed two very fast half marathons in two weeks (60 minutes and 48 seconds in Copenhagen then 59 minutes and 53 seconds in Belfort, France), when Gervais Hakizimana gave him offered to train him for the marathon, their collaboration taking off during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
A training enthusiast, Kiptum regularly ran more than 250 kilometers per week, and sometimes more than 300, rare figures even at a very high level, assured his trainer, who spoke with his runner in Swahili and English.
“In Chepkorio, we live together. He rents me a room. It’s very close to his house, but it’s better that he doesn’t come home, he has to concentrate, there’s family, children… He has to close off. He just runs, eats, sleeps,” added the coach, about his athlete, entirely devoted to his quest.
“Kelvin is a boy who likes to communicate, who listens a lot,” said Mr. Hakizimana.
The Rwandan posed, full of admiration, with his athlete, with a “World Record” sign in hand in Chicago last October.
“We are shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the death of Kelvin Kiptum and his coach, Gervais Hakizimana,” commented Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, the international athletics federation, saluting in a press release “an extraordinary athlete who leaves an extraordinary legacy.” “We will miss him,” he concludes.