As he approached the finish line, in Chicago, his arms were as thin as spaghetti, he waved them without criteria, as exhausted as he was wildly happy for what he was about to achieve when he tore with his body the ribbon held by two people at the finish line. He had had enough of running to steal 35 seconds from the world’s best time and all he needed was a piece of paper to confirm it.
Last October, when it became the new world record holder of the marathon, Kelvin Kiptum was a wide well of joy in a body with dry muscles and thin limbs, as are those of all humans who dedicate themselves to running 42 kilometers and 195 meters as fast as they can. Born in Kenya, he had only tried competing in the distance a year ago, enough time to run the marathon in two hours and 35 seconds.
Athletics had a new star coming from the nation where running long distances is a skill injected into the blood from an early age: the record that Kelvin Kiptum recorded in Chicago surpassed the mark of Eliud Kipchoge, his legendary compatriot who wrapped himself twice in the Kenyan flag at the Olympic Games, after winning gold medals. At 23 years old, he too became a legend.
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On Sunday night, with another trip around the sun complete, Kelvin Kiptum died in the Rift Valley, a mountainous region of his country, on the road and at altitude, where he was training in pursuit of the temporal oasis that has eluded male marathon runners for years. recent. It was a car accident that took Kiptum and his coach, Milcah Chemos, who were there to organize the athlete’s body for this season to try to run a marathon under two hours.
The Kenyan only made his debut in the distance in December 2022, so recently that only records were in store for him along the way. His international debut forever links him to Lisbon, where he won the Half Marathon in 2019, taking 59 minutes and 54 seconds.
Kelvin Kiptum hadn’t competed since Chicago and life sometimes has an ironic pencil drawing joys and sadness, it is ironically coincidental that the last tarmac run by the marathon world record holder who left this world too soon was the race where he left writing such a feat. “We are saddened and shocked by the news. He was an incredible athlete who leaves an incredible legacy”, lamented World Athletics, which had chosen him as athlete of the year in 2023.
2024-02-11 23:57:00
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