Kelvin Kiptum

Life and work

Kelvin Kiptum Cheruiyot (2 December 1999 – 11 February 2024) was a Kenyan long-distance runner who held the marathon world record between 2023 and 2026. As of 2026, he still held two of the six fastest times running marathons in history, and was ranked first among the world's men's marathon runners at the time of his death.

Kiptum won all three marathons he ran including two top-tier World Marathon Majors (WMM) between December 2022 and October 2023. His times were three of the seven fastest marathon times, setting a course record of less than 2 hours 2 minutes in each race.

Kiptum ran the fastest-ever marathon debut at the 2022 Valencia Marathon, becoming only the third man in history to break two hours and two minutes and at the time set the fourth quickest time ever. In April 2023 he ran the second-fastest marathon in history at 2:01:25, 16 seconds outside the world record, at the 2023 London Marathon (WMM). At the 2023 Chicago Marathon, he broke the world record by 34 seconds with a time of 2:00:35, a mark ratified on 6 February 2024; five days before his death; by the international track federation World Athletics.

Kiptum and his coach died in a car crash on 11 February 2024 in Kaptagat, a settlement in rural Kenya used as a training place for long-distance runners. Local police said that Kiptum lost control of his vehicle and veered off the road, hitting a tree.

Kelvin Kiptum was born on 2 December 1999. He grew up in Chepsamo village in Marakwet District, Chepkorio, a high-altitude (~2,600 m) area in Elgeyo-Marakwet County of Kenya's Rift Valley.

He was the only child of Samson Cheruiyot and Mary Kangongo. As a young boy, he herded his family's cattle and began following other barefoot runners along the forest trails. Kiptum started training around 2013, when he was 13 years old.

In 2013, at the age of 13, Kiptum finished 10th in his first half marathon, the Family Bank Eldoret Half Marathon in Kenya. In 2014, he finished 12th; in 2018, he finished first, self-coached at the time. In March 2019, Kiptum participated in his first international race, the Lisbon Half Marathon, finishing fifth with a new personal record (59:54). He participated in six other races that year, touring north and west Europe, and won the Kass Half Marathon in Kenya in November. In 2020, Kiptum started working with Rwandan 3000 metres steeplechase record holder Gervais Hakizimana as a coach, although Kiptum supposedly had periodically trained alongside other youths with him since 2013. Since about 2020, he was already preparing for the marathon. In December of that year, the then-21-year-old set a significant personal best in the Spanish Valencia Half Marathon

at 58:42, placing sixth. In 2021, he ran 59:35 and 59:02 half marathons in Lens, Pas-de-Calais (placing first) and Valencia again (placing eighth), respectively.

In December, 23-year-old Kiptum pulled off an upset when debuting in the classic 42.195 km distance at the Valencia Marathon. Running with a negative split, he took the victory with the fourth-fastest time ever of 2:01:53, becoming the third man in history to break two hours and two minutes. Only his compatriot and then-world record holder Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele had run faster up to that point. Kiptum set the quickest second half in marathon history with a time of 60:15 (including 14:00 from 30–35k and 28:05 between 30–40k). His winning time was by far the fastest marathon debut in history, smashing the course record by over a minute. He also beat the runner-up by more than a minute and the 2022 world marathon champion Tamirat Tola, the pre-race favourite, among others.

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