Tragedy strikes the track and field world as 24-year-old Kelvin Kiptum, a marathon world record-holder, died in a car accident in his native Kenya on Sunday, reports have confirmed. In an unfortunate twist of events, Kiptum’s coach, Gervais Hakizimana, also reportedly died in the crash.
A third person involved was rushed to a hospital, per The Standard newspaper in Kenya:
“This was a self-involved accident where one Kelvin Kiptum, the world marathon record holder, was driving his vehicle with two passengers. Kiptum and Hakizimana died on the spot and the third person was rushed to Racecourse Hospital in Eldoret,” Elgeyo Marakwet Police Commander Peter Mulinge told The Nation.
Kiptum stormed the marathon scene 13 months ago with a time of 2:01:53 in his debut at the 2022 Valencia Marathon. He kept improving his scores with every competition and took the world record with 2:00:35 last October at the 2024 Chicago Marathon.
In his short time as one of the elite marathon runners in the sport, Kiptum ran all three of the major marathons and his times rank among the seven fastest of all time. So every single opportunity Kiptum got to run, he was a threat to do it better than anyone in history, as the only man to break the 2:02 mark three times.
Kiptum Planned To Rule Rotterdam Then ’24 Olympics In Paris
Kiptum was working hard to become the first man to break the two-hour mark at the Rotterdam Marathon in April. He was a heavy favorite to bring home Olympic gold this summer in Paris.
What an incredible story it would have been. Kimptum, born and raised in the Chepsamo village in Chepkorio and grew up laboring on his family’s cattle farm, rises to the top of his profession.
As one of the rising faces of the sport, tributes poured in for his and Hakizimana’s family as news of their deaths circulated through the social media mosh pit.
Fans took to social media to give their condolences to the family and to express their own grief at having lost a star so young.
After twice clocking two hours and one minute for the minute, in 2022 and 2023, Kiptum shattered Kenyan icon Eliud Kipchoge’s world record of 2:01:09.
It’s always devastating when we lose a shining star so young. The roads in Kenya are statistically not the safest.
Every year between 3,000 and 13, 000 lose their lives in road traffic accidents in Kenya. Most are vulnerable road users-pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists. One third of deaths are among passengers, many of whom are killed in unsafe forms of public transportation.
This tragic accident comes a little more than a month after three people tragically lost their lives while several others sustained injuries in a series of road accidents that occurred across Kenya on Jan. 8.
Incidents that highlighted the urgent need for improved road safety measures and stricter enforcement of traffic regulations.
From 2021 to mid-2022, about 2,000 people reportedly died on Kenyan roads. Overall, those figures represented a 9 percent increase from the previous year’s 1,754 fatalities.
Kiptum, who is survived by a wife and two children, began his competitive running career around the age of 13, placing 10th at the Eldoret Half Marathon and grinding until he won the race in 2018 at the age of 18. His premature death impacts the marathon culture in the same way that Chadwick Boseman’s death shocked the movie industry. Kiptum won’t easily be forgotten.