Marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum dies at 24 in an accident – ​​Libération

Kelvin Kiptum died on Sunday February 11 at the age of 24 in a car accident in his home region in Kenya. The world of athletics mourns one of its most promising hopes.

He was 24 years old, a marathon world record title, and the hope of shattering it during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum died Sunday evening in a car accident on a road in the Rift Valley region, his home region where he trained. Since then, tributes have multiplied to salute the one who was favorite for the future Olympic title.

Two other passengers, his trainer Gervais Hakizimana also killed instantly and a woman taken to hospital, were on board, Elgeyo Marakwet County police commander Peter Mulinge told reporters. “It was Kiptum who was driving towards Eldoret”, a town in western Kenya, he added, specifying that the athlete had lost control of the vehicle which had swerved fatally.

Kiptum made a thunderous irruption into the marathon world, breaking the world record for the discipline in Chicago last October (2 hours 00 minutes and 35 seconds), beating the time of his compatriot Eliud Kipchoge by 34 seconds, for third. marathon of his career only. He had also won the previous two, in Valencia in 2022 and London in 2023. The Kenyan had announced that he was going to try to become the first man to run an official marathon under the symbolic two-hour mark in Rotterdam on April 14.

Kenyan President William Ruto on Monday morning saluted the memory of “an extraordinary sportsman who left an extraordinary mark” in sport, praising “his mental strength and discipline” in a message posted on the social network our future,” he said.

“Incredible athlete”

This sudden death shook the world of athletics. “Kiptum was one of the most exciting new prospects to emerge in the road running sector in recent years,” the international athletics federation said in a statement. “We are shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the devastating loss of Kelvin Kiptum and his coach, Gervais Hakizimana,” said its president Sebastian Coe. He paid tribute to “an incredible athlete who leaves an incredible legacy”. “He will be greatly missed,” he concluded.

“A few days before the Olympic Games, we mourn the premature departure of a promising talent,” declared the president of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya, Paul Tergat, while the double Olympic champion (2012, 2016) Kenyan in the 800 m David Rudisha, regretted “a huge loss”, in messages on X.

Kiptum lost his life not far from his training routes and his original village of Chepkorio, about forty kilometers from Eldoret, in the Rift Valley, a mecca for Kenyan long-distance running. He was trained by Rwandan Gervais Hakizimana, whom he saw training on the roads near his home while tending his herd of goats. Seven years after their first meeting in 2013, Gervais Hakizimana became his full-time coach in 2020.