The world
Updated Sunday, February 11, 2024-23:53
The world marathon record holder,
Kelvim Kiptum
, has died along with his coach in a traffic accident on a Kenyan road on which they were both traveling.
The car in which they were traveling traveled a route through the Rift Valley that linked the towns of
Kaptagat
and
Eldoret
, the athlete's birthplace. That part of Kenya is the favorite place to train for Kenyan distance runners.
Kiptum
's name
had already entered the history books after he set a stratospheric record in the
Chicago
Marathon . The Kenyan stopped the clock at 2.00.35 in what was a new world record.
At just 24 years old, the world of athletics pointed him out as the main candidate to break the two-hour barrier in the legendary 42-kilometer race.
Kiptum
was the heir of
Kipchoge
, the other great marathon runner, from whom he had taken the world record.