Kelvin Kiptum, Marathon World Record Holder, Dead at 24 | NewsBurrow

By

Steven Taranto, CBS Sports

Kelvin Kiptum, the 2023 winner of the London Marathon and the world marathon record holder, was eliminated in an automobile mishap on Sunday while driving in Kaptagat, Kenya. He was 24.

According to The Guardian, authorities stated that Kiptum lost control of his lorry at around 11 p.m. regional time, hitting a tree before eventually winding up in a ditch. Kiptum and his coach, Gervais Hakizimana, were both stated dead on-site. A 3rd individual, who had actually been a guest in Kiptum’s car, was hurried to Racecourse Health center in Eldoret.

Kiptum’s death just comes one week after his world record of 2 hours, 0 minutes, and 35 seconds– set at Chicago last October– had actually been validated by World Sports. Just recently, Kiptum had actually revealed his strategies to attempt and end up being the very first individual in history to finish a marathon in less than 2 hours at Rotterdam in April.

” We are surprised and deeply saddened to discover of the disastrous loss of Kelvin Kiptum and his coach, Gervais Hakizimana,” World Sports president Sebastian Coe stated in a declaration. “On behalf of all World Sports, we send our inmost acknowledgements to their households, buddies, colleagues and the Kenyan country.

” It was just previously today in Chicago, the location where Kelvin set his amazing marathon world record, that I had the ability to formally validate his historical time. An unbelievable professional athlete leaving an unbelievable tradition, we will miss him a lot,” Coe stated.

Just a couple of years after making his global launching as a teen in 2019, Kiptum made his marathon launching in December 2022, and rapidly rose to fame with a win at Valencia. He would win the London Marathon in a course record just a couple of months later on, and after that– in simply his 3rd marathon– set the world record at Chicago, exceeding the previous mark set by Eliud Kipchoge by 34 seconds.

Kiptum had actually been called the 2023 World Professional Athlete of the Year for males’s out-of-stadia occasions. His death was met excellent commiseration not just in World Sports, however likewise in Kenya where he had rapidly end up being a civic hero.

” Destructive news as we grieve the loss of an impressive person, Kelvin Kiptum, world record holder and Kenyan sports icon. Together with his coach, they unfortunately handed down in a mishap tonight,” a declaration by Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga checked out. “Our country grieves the extensive loss of a real hero.”

This story was initially released by CBS Sports on Feb. 11, 2024.

ASSOCIATED MATERIAL: