Javier Sanchez

Updated Monday, February 12, 2024-23:27

  • News Kelvin Kiptum, world marathon record holder, dies in a car accident

  • Previous Sammy Wanjiru, a life in a hurry

A decade before

Kelvin Kiptum

, who tragically died this Sunday at the age of 24, was considered the heir to

Eliud Kipchoge

, the new prince of the marathon, that position had another name:

Sammy Wanjiru

. Wiry and thin, no one ran so lightly, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics he won gold levitating, but his life also ended too soon: in 2011, also at the age of 24, he was found dead under the balcony of his apartment. What happened? It is still not clear today.

According to the police investigation, Wanjiru, who suffered from alcoholism, was in bed with a lover,

Jane Nduta

, a waitress at a nearby bar, when his wife,

Teresa Njeri

, entered the family home. She caught them, they argued and then tragedy occurred. The court ruling concluded that Njeri locked the athlete with her lover in her room and that he tried unsuccessfully to leave through the balcony. Wanjiru's mother, on the other hand, has been defending for years that Njeri threw her son against the sidewalk. In any case, Wanjiru died and joined the long list of athletics stars in Kenya who died suddenly before retiring. Kiptum's car accident this Sunday, in fact, was only the latest chapter of that black legend.


The mistreatment of Kirop

Many years ago, in 1995, for example,

Paul Kipkoech

, gold in the 10,000 meters at the 1987 World Cup, died at the age of 33 due to cerebral malaria complicated by tuberculosis. And in 2001, another case,

Richard Chelimo

, world record holder in those 10,000 meters and silver in the 1991 Tokyo World Cup, died at the age of 29 due to a brain tumor. There are other less well-known examples, such as that of

Benson Masya

, half marathon world champion, who died at the age of 33 in 2003 for unknown reasons, and in recent months the bad streak has accelerated.

Shortly before Kiptum,

Nicholas Bett

, gold in the 400 meter hurdles at the 2015 World Cup in Beijing, died in 2018 at the age of 28 in another traffic accident. And just a couple of years ago, at the end of 2021,

Agnes Kirop

, double medalist world champion in the 10,000 meters, was murdered at the age of 25. She was found dead in her house with several stab wounds to her neck and her husband, who was also her coach, confessed to the crime. An investigation by Swedish public radio showed months later that her agent,

Gianni Demadonna

, one of the most reputable, knew about the situation of abuse that Tirop was experiencing and did not report it.

Kiptum's lifestyle

Even today the police are trying to clarify what happened, as is the case with the recent Kiptum accident. According to the Elgeyo Marakwet County Police Station report, the causes of his misfortune are unknown because there was no bump or imperfection in the race. The marathon world record holder was driving his Toyota Premio back from Eldoret and before reaching his village, Chepkorio, he went off the highway, hit a tree and ended up in a ditch. Both he and his coach, the Rwandan

Gervais Hakizimana

, who was co-pilot, died instantly and a 24-year-old woman, Sharon Kosgei, who was in the back seat, is hospitalized with serious injuries.

After breaking the marathon world record just four months ago in Chicago (his mark remains, 2:00:35), Kiptum was preparing to surpass it in the Rotterdam marathon in April and for a generational duel with Kipchoge at the Olympic Games of Paris in August. Still in his region, Keiyo South, from a cattle family, an apprentice electrician, success had not made the marathoner change his lifestyle, he simply continued adding kilometers and more kilometers. In fact he did so many that he surprised the experts, with weeks of up to 300, when current standards limit the maximums to about 220 or 230 to avoid injuries.

STREFE

Kiptum was called to be the first human being to go under two hours in the 42.195 kilometers and he was the exponent of new athletics, technological athletics, athletics of the future. With a technique perfectly adapted to carbon shoes, his limit was impossible to measure before the tragedy the day before yesterday. Now his achievements will remain, like those of so many deceased champions who are part of the black legend of athletics in Kenya.


After breaking the marathon world record just four months ago in Chicago (his mark remains, 2:00:35), Kiptum was preparing to surpass it in the Rotterdam marathon in April and for a generational duel with Kipchoge at the Olympic Games of Paris in August. Still in his region, Keiyo South, from a cattle family, an apprentice electrician, success had not made the marathoner change his lifestyle, he simply continued adding kilometers and more kilometers. Now his achievements will remain, like those of so many deceased champions who are part of the black legend of athletics in Kenya.