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

Same as twitter, people are being unreasonable sometimes.

So the president of Athletics Kenya said Kiptum “*drove* through the ditch for 60m before hitting a big tree”. This sounds very strange as you would expect the instinctual reaction to be to immediately hit the brakes when the car veers off the road. Is it possible that he meant the car skidded for 60m or just rolled or flew over the ditch but he said “drove” because English is not his native language?

rip kelvin kiptum he had such a bright future ahead of him could’ve gone 2 and olympic gold 😭😭 didn’t deserve to die

In a scenario where (armed?) robbers were blocking the road, it could be an escape tactic to get around the roadblock and eventually get back on the road and get away quickly. Maybe those who know the area can comment on whether this type of thing occurs in that area.

Look at the wreck of his vehicle. He must have been going pretty fast.

It’s human nature to not want to believe that important events can’t have a simple explanation or be caused by random chance.

Use some common sense, man. They didn't interview the dead, and I doubt they thoroughly interviewed the seriously injured woman yet if she is even conscious. There's the evidence on the ground, skids in the ground/dirt, debris trail, where the car ended up, damage on the car, etc.—accident reconstruction.

I'm kind of shocked at the extent of damage to the safety cage section of the car. It looks kind of like the cabin of a car that crashes under a semi trailer. It also looks like it didn't take a frontal hit. Maybe the cabin got almost sheared off by the tree while skidding its side as it hit? Or skidding or rolling over in the ditch on the roof? Just guesses.

The Toyota Premio is a 2016–2021 refresh model based on the 2007 generation, sold new only in the Japanese market. So the driver is on the right side. Not that it matters, since I assume Kiptum and coach were occupying both front seats and the woman that survived was in the back.

I doubt if it was random chance. Somebody who has just run 30 miles that day and 220 for the week is more likely to lose control of their car at 11pm on a darkly lit road than the average driver.

So, doing some math, if he was driving at say 100-120km/hr, 60m is 2 whole seconds of reaction time to hit the brakes, which is actually a long time, so going by the apparent speed at the instant of collision based on the damage to the car, I’d guess either he was tired and briefly fell asleep on the wheel or in a moment of panic stamped hard on gas instead of the brakes.

It's crazy to think both Sammy Wanjiru and Kelvin Kiptum finished their final race in legendary fashion at the Chicago Marathon

Exactly that was what I was saying. Kenyan roads are so friggin dark, pot-holed and weaving on top of inclines and downhills with blindspots. You have to memorize the road by hard or have driven through it 10,000 hours in practice in order to foresee the slightest potential danger in space and time!!! But of course being dark is not an excuse because you can just turn up your headlights. I think Kelvin was just tired at 11pm.

This. Robbery or someone sabotaged his car. I still can't believe Kiptum is dead.This topic has to continue until the truth comes to light. Running world must demand a complete investigation with several mechanical experts providing complete reports about the car operation during the accident.

60 meters is a long distance to not hit the brakes unless it was skidding or Kelvin was asleep lol!!! Just incredible accident that was self-created!!! I would expect at least an onrushing vehicle to slam into Kelvin's car for him to lose his precious life than him dying by his own hand????

Or I would expect a sniper shooting from a distance to disable Kelvin at the wheel and have the sniper blamed for the accident rather than Kelvin???

If Kelvin would have lost his life he had 101 ways to lose it but just not by his own hand!!!!

I was curious about the road so I pulled up a random google map of what I assume is the highway of where he was travelling per the articles.

It looks like a well paved road, however immediately I see say a heavy truck on the wrong side of the road at the apex of a blind corner:

google.com

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

Open link

I imagine Kenyans aren't the safest drivers, and it was 11pm and he wasn't wearing a seatbelt himself. Probably the simplest explanation is the best - wrong place wrong time.

The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.
Today, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.
Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay,
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.
Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears.
Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.
So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.
And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl’s.

The police are not in the habit of covering up such incidents; if they were armed robbers, they would have said so (unless they didn't know).

As others have said, he could have been tired or asleep at the wheel. The roads here do not leave much room for error, especially at certain speeds. I almost had an accident myself two years ago when I was driving, sober, through a thick forest at about 10pm. The road was not lit and there were no signs in that particular section; I came round a bend but missed it for a few seconds and almost drove into the forest at 90km/h. Fortunately, I realised my mistake and corrected course while still on the hard shoulder.