Kelvin Kiptum, marathon world record-holder, dies in crash at 24
Marathon world record-holder Kelvin Kiptum, who was set to be a superstar of long-distance running, was killed along with his coach in a car crash in Kenya late Sunday.
NAIROBI, Kenya — Marathon world record-holder Kelvin Kiptum, who was set to be a superstar of long-distance running, was killed along with his coach in a car crash in Kenya late Sunday.
Kiptum was 24.
World Athletics, the international track federation, had just last week ratified the world record he set last year at the Chicago Marathon.
Kelvin Kiptum during a press conference in London on April 20, 2023.John Walton / APKiptum, who was Kenyan, and his Rwandan coach Gervais Hakizimana were killed in the crash at around 11 p.m. Another Kenyan athlete, Milcah Chemos, confirmed their deaths to The Associated Press. She was at the hospital mortuary where the bodies were taken and had seen Kiptum’s body, she said.
The crash happened on a road between the towns of Eldoret and Kaptagat in western Kenya, Chemos said, in the heart of the high-altitude region that’s renowned as a training base for distance runners.
Rating: 5