RIP: Marathon WR Kelvin Kiptum has died in a car accident at the age of 24

Keep running in the sky bro. You will be missed.

fkn LEGEND

Sad but I don't get the conspiracy theories. A young male driving a fast car at night with a young woman in the front likely at an unsafe speed loses control, goes off road and people die. That's a pretty common occurrence including in the West. There's a reason young drivers especially male have really high insurance costs.

Add to that Kenya having over twice the road fatality rate as the US which is already really high by Western standards and its really not unexpected.

Also many people think they're invincible so why bother getting a driver, even if you can afford it, when driving yourself is so much funner. Also if he was trying to impress a woman then a driver wouldn't do that.

Basically drive to conditions, leave a gap and take a break if you're tired rather than driving faster to get home quicker.

So this accident occurs on Sunday night, after a 300km week no doubt, when Kelvin by all rights should be shelled and in bed. I recall him saying to prepare for Rotterdam he was going to live a monastic run eat sleep life?

Something just doesn’t add up here.

pulsesports.co.ke

Kelvin Kiptum’s father reads malice in his son’s tragic death

Pulse Sports

Kelvin Kiptum’s father feels some people could be behind his son’s death following his tragic demise in a road accident on Sunday night

Open link

pulsesports.co.ke

Kelvin Kiptum’s father reads malice in his son’s tragic death

Pulse Sports

Kelvin Kiptum’s father feels some people could be behind his son’s death following his tragic demise in a road accident on Sunday night

Open link

Still in a little shock and i cant imagine what state his close family are.

As a coach who has been based in Kenya I can say for sure Kenyan roads are dangerous. The number of road accidents occurring on a daily basis are insane.Its a combination of bad infrastructure, a culture of impunity and discrepancy in vehicle roadworthiness.

I have also driven on that Kaptagat-Eldoret Road and I can tell you it's really dark at night because of the forest cover.Some sections of it are particularly winding ,meandering and pot-holed especially past Kaptagat hotel towards Flax area .Also because of the forests nearby its quite common for wild animals to wander into the road and could catch you out while driving at high speed.

I have always stated in several threads regarding Kiptum that I believed his management was letting him down.They could have set up a proper system around him to train and manage him while focusing on the sub 2 run at Rotterdam. They left him to use the previous rudimentary system while at the same time requiring him to go for sponsorship/business meetings etc e.g on Sundays after a long hard week of training. Why would he be driving at 2300hrs on a Sunday night after clocking 300km of weeks training?Also they could have left him open and vulnerable while out there .Surely a world marathon record holder should have a better support system around him.Even Nike should have done better.

Interesting in the article Kiptums father said his son had told him hw was ready to run 1.58!!!

Brutal news. A horrible and tragic loss. I had been looking forward to see what he would run in Rotterdam.

I was just re-reading Rojo's thread for October: "Kelvin Kiptum is no Sammy Wanjiru. His father (a pastor) says he's never had a drop of alcohol" and grimacing at Rojo's horribly prescient comparison. Thirteen years later and there is still a lot of mystery surrounding Wanjiru's death, and sadly I am worried that there may be similar mystery about Kiltum's sad passing for a long time.

Is anyone familiar with the website Pulse Kenya? It seems like it may be a legitimate sports websites but I am not sure about it's reliability so will not link to it. That website recently posted an article : "Kelvin Kiptum’s father feels some people could be behind his son’s death following his tragic demise in a road accident on Sunday night" and a number of other websites seem to have similar stories. Has anyone watched the interview with Kiptum's father on Citizen TV, which is supposedly the basis for these stories?

Horrible, horrible news that I still am having trouble believing.

Rest in peace Kelvin. You were an inspiration to many. A loss of life this young always stings. Fly high king <3

Hard to believe how that is possible

I was reminded of Ivo Van Damme , the Belgian who won silver medals in the 800 and 1500 at the 1976 Olympics . He died in a car crash later that year. He was 22. The Van Damme Memorial meet is named for him .

How can I be so gutted by the death of someone I have never met and whose voice sound I don't even recall?

And still here we are, I have some butterflies in the belly.

I am at a loss for words. I think I can say at least you broke the WR before you died. It could have happened a few months ago.

Your death is as surreal as your performances.

And still here we are, and I still have these butterflies in the stomach. May they reach you.

You are right, something doesn't add up: your sick twisted mind, as well as any conspiracy theorist out there. ShT happens, the fact that someone wishes to do something and for some circumstances plans have to change and out of that change an accident strikes it can happens, as hard as that is to process in your sick, twisted, mind. You definitely need a hobby and some psychiatric help while at it. And this applies to ALL the idiotic conspiracy theorists here.

yes im sorry if that article fueled the conspiracy at all

I hope it came from the perspective that a parent suffering what they have had to go through would be in an utterly emotional place right now, lacking sleep and looking for any way to make sense of something that does not make sense in grief.

RIP

Pulse Kenya and all other Pulse Africa web properties are tabloids owned by Axel Springer, the German company that also owns Politico and Business Insider. Their reporting is sometimes sensational, but not false.

Lots of negative comments on Kipchoge's instagram post about Kiptum, from East Africans and Kenyans. "You never gave him flowers when he could see them, hypocritical" "One word congratulations when he was alive was too much and now you write paragraph, crocodile tears" etc.

That's very sad.May he,and his coach rest in peace.

Yeah well this is not true. I mean Kiptum was NEVER going to run 1:58 for the marathon. We can honor his memory without becoming complete morons ourselves.

I have not been to that part of Kenya. But having driven many places in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, we take for granted how safe the roads are in western countries. Many roads are poorly designed and even more poorly maintained. There is also little enforcement of speed and traffic safety laws. You have sportscars traveling at highway speeds weaving around farm tractors or sometimes even horse drawn lorries, on roads with steep grades, blind curves, no guardrails, potholes everywhere...

With his progression, I don't think that's unfathomable. I mean he just started out in the professional scene despite his WR.