What makes Kelvin kiptum so good?

Something juicy. . .

After so many threads - and so many Kenyans busted - what a silly question.

What makes ingebrigtsen so good?

please everyone can we have an actual discussion. Maybe he is doping, maybe he's not I don't know. But either way he is still far better than his competitors—including those who are doping. What is it about the marathon that creates outlier runners despite its high uptake amongst elite athletes? Why is the marathon world record improving so quickly relative to other events? All far more interesting than the repetitive trite and banality of 'X is doping, no X isn't'.

If the best weren't doping the record wouldn't be improving the way it has. It is the same for other events and has been happening for decades. The sport is no different from the T de F or pro wrestling.

Shoes are more effective the longer the distance.

Sorry, but you can't ignore the doping factors.

Only two in-competition tests a year, the rest of the year hidden away in a country where the standard of testing is awful and the testers have been documented as giving advanced text warnings of 'random tests' and accepting tea money.

Kipchoge and Bekele both benefitted from EPO doping for up to 20 years, and certainly in the case of Kipchoge, that would have been full throttle doping for a few years as a young man.

This guy pretty much came out of nowhere. With the Covid lockdowns too, he may have been doping full throttle for several years.

Hi John Kellogg.

Drugs

If you look at the fastest 10 Kenyan marathon runners at the end of 2019, four of them have been suspended for doping :

3. Wilson Kipsang
7, Lawrence Cherono
8. Marius Kipserem
9. Abraham Kiptum

That's 40%.

And if you think I'm cherrypicking, it will look the same way in another 4 years for the top 10 now, and maybe more of the top 10 from 2019 will have been busted by then too.

His secret is thermal regulation to keep his Kelvins low.

PEDs

It looks like he basically skipped his track and field career. At age 18 he ran a half marathon in 62 flat in Eldoret around 7,000 foot altitude. Then a year later when he was 19 he ran some sea level half marathons and went sub 60 twice. On his 21st birthday when races started coming back after covid he ran a high 58 half PR December 6th 2020. Ran a couple more sub 60 half marathons later on as a 21 year old. Then around his 23rd birthday he ran his marathon debut in Valencia and win in 2:01:53, and now again at age 23 ran 2:01:25. He has been very consistent the past 4 years. He has run 10 half marathon races in the past few years, 6 of them were sub 60 with the fastest being sub 59. But his second half marathon in London was also a sub 60. It is pretty hard to believe when that is his typical half marathon performance over the past few years and he did it over the second half of a marathon, but maybe he has just improved a ton and if he were to run a half marathon race now he'd run 58 flat or mid 57.

Drug dealers exploiting young talent. Why don't you talk about that?

You're a rotten apple.

There’s no secret so most likely all of the following:

high mileage

hard/long workouts

injury free and consistent

elite recovery (9-10hrs sleep, low stress, soft surface, nutrition/calories on point)

altitude

These are controllable factors both you and I can follow OP. Will we be as good as him? Maybe, maybe not. But I can assure you he does these things as good or better than anyone else in the world. Everyone else on letsrun is too fixated on things outside their control (doping accusations, shoes super responder, genetics) and that is why they will never sniff the level of pros. Quit making excuses for others or things outside your control.

Yeah I do talk about that. You realize that half the doping apologists in threads like this are paid shills of these drug dealers?

Here are the top 15 fastest Kenyan Half Marathoners from 2020 (all sub 60). Please tell me how many have been busted.

57:32 Kibiwott KANDIE
57:49 Rhonex KIPRUTO
57:59 Alexander Mutiso MUNYAO
58:11 Philemon KIPLIMO
58:42 Kelvin KIPTUM
59:10 Leonard BARSOTON
59:26 Benard Kipkorir NGENO
59:27 Shadrack KIMINING
59:35 Abel KIPCHUMBA
59:36 Geoffrey KOECH
59:37 Bravin Kipkogei KIPTOO
59:42 Benard KIMELI
59:49 Alfred BARKACH
59:51 Vincent Kibor RAIMOI
59:58 Victor Kimutai CHUMO

I would be surprised if Kiptum couldn't go sub 58 for the half right now. I hope he isn't doping, I would love to see someone run a legitimate sub 2 marathon and he seems like he has a decent shot at pulling it off. But I won't be terribly surprised or disappointed if he is doping.

Either he is dopped to the max and will probably get caught soon, has some new drug nobody else has, or he is on another talent level than everyone else. He has been competing on a pro level for long enough that he should have been tested a few times. Can dopers beat a test? Yes, many have. But you have to be smart about it and know how to limit your EPO intake around competition and testing time. It's when they get sloppy or greedy that they get caught.

He could very well get caught in the next few months if he is running on huge amounts of EPO. But if he isn't, that at least suggests he isn't just a product of more EPO than everyone else. He could still have access to some new drug nobody else does, but I don't know how likely that is.