![]() Kiptum at the 2023 London Marathon | ||||||||||||||||||
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Kelvin Kiptum Cheruiyot | |||||||||||||||||
Born | Chepsamo, Chepkorio, Kenya | 2 December 1999|||||||||||||||||
Died | 11 February 2024 near Kaptagat, Kenya | (aged 24)|||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)[1] | |||||||||||||||||
Weight | 65 kg (143 lb)[1] | |||||||||||||||||
Spouse | Asenath Cheruto Rotich | |||||||||||||||||
Children | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
Country | Kenya | |||||||||||||||||
Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||||||||
Event | Long-distance running | |||||||||||||||||
Coached by | Gervais Hakizimana (2023–2024)[2][3] | |||||||||||||||||
Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||
Highest world ranking | 1st (Marathon, 2023)[4] | |||||||||||||||||
Personal best | ||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Kelvin Kiptum Cheruiyot (2 December 1999 – 11 February 2024) was a Kenyan long-distance runner who currently holds the marathon world record. As of 2024[update], he ran three of the seven fastest marathons in history[5] and was ranked first among the world's men's marathon runners.[6]
Kiptum won all three marathons he ran, including two top-tier World Marathon Majors (WMM) between December 2022 and October 2023. His times were three of the seven fastest marathon times,[7] setting a course record of less than 2 hours 2 minutes in each race.
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.[8] He 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 (WMM).[9] At the 2023 Chicago Marathon six months later in October 2023, he broke the world record by 34 seconds with a time of 2:00:35, a mark ratified on 6 February 2024—five days before his death—by the international track federation World Athletics.[10]
He and his coach died unexpectedly in an automobile accident on 11 February 2024 in Kaptagat, a settlement in rural Kenya used as a training place for long-distance runners. Local police said that Kiptum lost control of his vehicle and veered off the road, hitting a tree.
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