20 Facts About Kelvin Kiptum

Kelvin Kiptum Cheruiyot was a Kenyan long-distance runner who currently holds the marathon world record.

Kelvin Kiptum's times were three of the seven fastest marathon times, setting a course record of less than 2 hours 2 minutes in each race.

Kelvin Kiptum ran the fastest-ever marathon debut at the 2022 Valencia Marathon, becoming only the third man in history to break two hours and two minutes and setting the then fourth-quickest time ever.

Kelvin Kiptum followed it up four months later with the second-fastest marathon in history at 2:01:25,16 seconds outside the world record, at the 2023 London Marathon.

Local police said that Kelvin Kiptum lost control of his vehicle and veered off the road, hitting a tree.

Kelvin Kiptum grew up in Chepsamo village, Marakwet District, Chepkorio, a high-altitude area in Elgeyo-Marakwet County of Kenya's Rift Valley.

Kelvin Kiptum was the only child of Samson Cheruiyot and his wife.

Kelvin Kiptum started training around 2013, when he was 13 years old.

In 2013, at the age of 13, Kelvin Kiptum finished 10th in his first half marathon, the Family Bank Eldoret Half Marathon in Kenya.

In March 2019, Kelvin Kiptum participated in his first international race, the Lisbon Half Marathon, finishing fifth with a new personal record.

In 2020, Kelvin Kiptum started working with Rwandan 3000 metres steeplechase record holder Gervais Hakizimana as a coach, although Kelvin Kiptum supposedly had periodically trained alongside other youths with him since 2013.

Kelvin Kiptum set the quickest second half in marathon history with a time of 60:15.

Kelvin Kiptum's winning time was by far the fastest marathon debut in history, smashing the course record by over a minute.

Kelvin Kiptum beat the runner-up by more than a minute and the 2022 world marathon champion Tamirat Tola, the pre-race favourite, among others.

Kelvin Kiptum's following race, which was his third marathon and second World Marathon Major, was the Chicago Marathon on 8 October 2023, when he was still aged 23.

Kelvin Kiptum set a new world record with a time of two hours and 35 seconds, slicing 34 seconds off Kipchoge's standard set at the 2022 Berlin Marathon, and obliterating the course record by more than three minutes.

Kelvin Kiptum trained alternately in the high-altitude areas of Chepkorio and the nearby Kerio Valley before the Chicago Marathon.

Kelvin Kiptum was married to Asenath Cheruto Rotich, with whom he had two children.

Local police stated that Kelvin Kiptum lost control of his car and veered off the road, before entering a ditch and colliding with a tree.

On 23 February 2024, Kelvin Kiptum was buried at his farm in Naiberi, following a funeral ceremony in Chepkorio that was attended by Sebastian Coe and Kenyan president William Ruto.