World marathon report holder Kelvin Kiptum and his coach Gervais Hakizimana died in a site visitors accident on Sunday, February 12, 2024, former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga stated on social media platform X.
Kenya’s Minister for Sports activities, Ababu Namwamba, stated on X , “Devastatingly sickening!! Kenya has misplaced a particular gem. Misplaced for phrases.”
Kiptum, 24, set the world report on the Chicago Marathon in October with a time of two:00:35 to surpass the report of two:01:09 set by his compatriot Eliud Kipchoge in Berlin in 2022.
Kiptum smashed the London Marathon course report earlier final 12 months and was decided to make magic once more in Chicago as he sped up by the 35-kilometre mark earlier than thrusting his arms within the air to cheers from the gang down the ultimate stretch.
He was one of the thrilling prospects to emerge in highway operating in years and was a transparent contender for gold within the marathon on the Paris Olympics in August.
Additionally learn: Kelvin Kiptum within the time of Eliud Kipchoge — how the marathon simply obtained extra fascinating
Kiptum, who was Kenyan, and his Rwandan coach Gervais Hakizimana had been killed within the crash at round 11 p.m. One other Kenyan athlete, Milcah Chemos, confirmed their deaths to The Related Press. She was on the hospital mortuary the place the our bodies had been taken and had seen Kiptum’s physique, she stated.
She struggled to talk whereas breaking down in tears.
“I’ve no phrases to elucidate the lack of Kelvin,” she stated.
The crash occurred on a highway between the cities of Eldoret and Kaptagat in western Kenya, Chemos stated, within the coronary heart of the high-altitude area that’s famend as a coaching base for prime distance runners from Kenya and internationally. Kiptum was born and raised within the space.
Chemos stated she went to the hospital with different athletes and members of Kiptum’s household after listening to the information. The members of the family, which included Kiptum’s father, had been there to establish his physique.
The wreckage of the automobile by which Kenya’s marathon world report holder Kelvin Kiptum and his coach had been killed is towed from the scene of the accident alongside the Kaptagat to Eldoret freeway, close to the Rift Valley city of Eldoret, Kenya February 12, 2024.
| Photograph Credit score:
REUTERS
Badly mangled automobile
Denis Muga, the realm police chief for Kaptagat, stated Kiptum was driving and it was the one automobile concerned within the crash.
Kenneth Kimaiyo, a good friend of Kiptum, stated he arrived on the crash scene quickly after it occurred and Kiptum had been thrown out of the automobile. It appeared the automobile had veered off the highway at excessive velocity and collided with a tree earlier than rolling, Kimaiyo stated.
A 3rd individual, a girl, was additionally within the automobile and had been taken to the hospital with critical accidents, he stated.
Pictures from the scene confirmed the silver automobile with a badly mangled roof and one of many doorways flung open.
The Kenyan observe federation stated it was saddened to announce the deaths of Kiptum and Hakizimana.
Kiptum was the primary man to run the marathon in underneath 2 hours, 1 minute in an official race when he set the world report of two:00.35 in Chicago in October, beating the mark of fellow Kenyan and marathon nice Eliud Kipchoge. He set the report in simply his third top-level marathon.
Kiptum and Kipchoge had been anticipated to supply an attractive all-Kenyan battle for marathon gold in Paris. Kiptum was on account of begin his season on the Rotterdam Marathon in April, which might have been his first occasion since breaking the world report.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe was one of many first to supply his condolences in a press release 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, associates, teammates and the Kenyan nation.”
“It was solely earlier this week in Chicago, the place the place Kelvin set his extraordinary marathon World File, that I used to be capable of formally ratify his historic time. An unimaginable athlete leaving an unimaginable legacy, we’ll miss him dearly,” Coe wrote.
David Rudisha, Kenya’s two-time Olympic champion within the 800 meters, wrote on X that Kiptum’s dying was “an enormous loss.”
Kiptum had rapid success by operating 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 this planet. Whereas younger and new to the circuit, he had already run three of the seven quickest marathon occasions ever recorded.
He was the most recent of quite a few prime Kenyan runners to die in tragic highway accidents.
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 had been killed in a crash in 2018. Nicholas Bett, who gained gold within the 400 meters 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 critical highway accidents.
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.