Marathon world record-holder Kelvin Kiptum, who was hovering towards superstardom, killed in automobile crash in Kenya

Nairobi, Kenya — Marathon world record-holder Kelvin Kiptum, who was set to be a celebrity of long-distance working and was a prime contender for gold on the Olympics in Paris this 12 months, was killed alongside along with his coach in a automobile crash in Kenya.

Their automobile was the one one concerned within the crash late Sunday and Kiptum was driving when it veered off a highway and right into a ditch earlier than hitting a tree, police stated.

Kiptum was 24 and some of the thrilling prospects to emerge in highway working in years, having damaged the world document in solely his third look in an elite marathon. His document, set finally 12 months’s Chicago Marathon, was ratified by worldwide monitor federation World Athletics simply final week.

His loss of life reverberated by way of Kenya, the place runners are the most important sports activities stars. Kenyans have additionally gotten used to tragic tales involving their prime athletes after a quantity have died in highway crashes, different accidents and home violence instances.

“He was solely 24,” Kenyan President William Ruto stated in an announcement providing his condolences. “Kiptum was our future.”

Kiptum and his Rwandan coach, Gervais Hakizimana, have been killed within the crash at round 11 p.m., police stated. It occurred close to the city of Kapsabet in western Kenya, within the coronary heart of the high-altitude area that is famend as a coaching base for one of the best distance runners from Kenya and internationally.

Kiptum was born and raised within the space.

A 3rd particular person, a 24-year-old girl, was additionally within the automobile and was taken to a hospital with severe accidents, police stated. Kiptum and Hakizimana died on the scene.

Athletes and members of the family, together with Kiptum’s father, gathered on the hospital mortuary the place the our bodies of Kiptum and his coach have been taken. One of many athletes, former ladies’s steeplechase world champion Milcah Chemos, struggled to talk whereas breaking down in tears.

“I’ve no phrases to elucidate the lack of Kelvin,” she stated.

Kenneth Kimaiyo, a buddy of Kiptum, stated he arrived on the crash scene quickly after it occurred and Kiptum had been thrown out of the automobile. Pictures confirmed the silver automobile with a badly mangled roof and one of many doorways flung open.

Kiptum was the primary man to run the marathon in underneath 2 hours, 1 minute in an official race when he set the world document of two:00.35 in Chicago in October, beating the mark of fellow Kenyan and marathon nice Eliud Kipchoge.

Kiptum and Kipchoge have been anticipated to offer an attractive all-Kenyan battle for marathon gold in Paris and Kiptum was as a result of begin his season on the Rotterdam Marathon in April, which might have been his first occasion since breaking the world document.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe was one of many first to supply his condolences in an announcement on X, previously Twitter.

“We’re shocked and deeply saddened to study of the devastating lack of Kelvin Kiptum and his coach, Gervais Hakizimana,” Coe wrote. “On behalf of all World Athletics we ship our deepest condolences to their households, mates, teammates and the Kenyan nation.”

“It was solely earlier this week in Chicago, the place the place Kelvin set his extraordinary marathon World Report, that I used to be in a position to formally ratify his historic time. An unimaginable athlete leaving an unimaginable legacy, we are going to miss him dearly,” Coe wrote.

David Rudisha, Kenya’s two-time Olympic champion within the 800 meters, wrote on X that Kiptum’s loss of life was “an enormous loss.”

Kiptum had speedy success by working the quickest time ever by a marathon debutant on the 2022 Valencia Marathon. The next 12 months, he gained the London and Chicago races, two of essentially the most prestigious marathons on the earth. He set a brand new course document on the London Marathon final April after which turned the quickest marathoner on the earth months later.

Whereas younger and new to the circuit, he had already run three of the seven quickest marathon instances ever recorded and was seen as a uncommon expertise.

However he was additionally the newest Kenyan star to die in devastating circumstances.

David Lelei, an All-Africa Video games silver medalist, died in a automobile crash in 2010. Marathon runner Francis Kiplagat was amongst 5 individuals who have been killed in a crash in 2018. Nicholas Bett, who gained gold within the 400 meter hurdles on the 2015 world championships, additionally died in a automobile crash in 2018.

Rudisha, former 10,000 meters world champion Moses Tanui and Olympic silver medalist Paul Tergat have all survived severe highway accidents within the East African nation.

Samuel Wanjiru, the 2008 Olympic marathon champion who was additionally tipped to be an all-time nice, died in 2011 on the age of 24 after falling from a balcony at his residence in Kenya.

Kenyans have been maybe most shocked when Agnes Tirop, a a number of cross-country world champion, was stabbed to loss of life in her residence in 2021, allegedly by her husband. He was charged with homicide.