Kelvin Kiptum, who was training for the first two-hour sub, died in a tragic car accident. A Finnish coach working in Kenya praises the young athlete.
A Finnish running coach who has been working in Kenya for almost 20 years Simo Wannasen the week got off to a dark start. Wannas, who is in Zambia on a visa application trip, read on the messaging service X that in October, the marathon ME time 2:00:35 in Chicago Kelvin Kiptum had perished in a car accident, which also took his coach, who was a passenger, from time to eternity Gervais Hakizimana.
The accident took place at the Western Kenya Endurance Training Camp between the towns of Kaptagati and Eldoret on a mountainous road. According to Wannas, who intensively followed Kiptum’s short-lived, wonderful career, the place of death contained dark symbolism.
– A little further on from Kapatagis is the training village of Chepkorio, from where Kelvin was on his way back. The distance by car would have been 42 kilometers, or the equivalent of a marathon, said Wannas, who lives in Eldoret.
According to him, the accident road is quite calm, but its surface formation is demanding and dangerous at times.
Steep descents
– We are coming down from the mountains, and there are several quite steep downhills on the way, where you can lose control of the car. And a young guy like that probably hasn’t been driving under the speed limit.
According to Wannas, only a small part of Kiptum’s potential was seen. This year, Kiptum would have likely attacked the two-hour ghost mark in two marathons, besides being part of the group from which Kenya will select its representative for the Paris Olympic Marathon.
– The potential was insane. The two-hour limit would very likely have been exceeded by now in Rotterdam in the spring (April 12), if the weather conditions had been favorable and the hares had done their job, Wannas believes.
Kiptum managed to run three marathons. In Valencia in December 2022, it was 2:01:53, which is the world record for debutants. Last April, it took 2:01:25 in London, i.e. the route record, and in Chicago Eliud Kipchogen 34 seconds were then cut from ME. What was special about the ME run was that the second half was one minute faster than the first.
– That kind of pace shows on the one hand amazing abilities, but also that the guy was just learning about the trip in a way, says Wannas.
Kiptum belonged to East Africa’s new generation of endurance runners, who practically skip track trips altogether. The marathon has been on his mind since he was a teenager. For example, Kipchoge and the Ethiopians from the top of the marathon Kenenisa Bekele mixed Haile Gebrselassie ran a great track race first.
– It’s about money, which is clearly more available on the road than on the track. As far as I know, Kelvin was also from such modest circumstances that it was not even possible for him to train on the field, because there was no such thing close to home. There is no doubt that he would have been a guy with ME potential even in his twenties, says Wannas.
The previous Kenyan athlete who died in a traffic accident of the same profile was Nicholas Bett 2018. He won the 400-meter hurdles at the World Championships in Beijing 2015. Ten years ago, a traffic accident took Mbulaeni Mulaudzinthe South African 800m world champion.