Someone very important in sports died on Sunday. The world record leader for the marathon, Kelvin Kiptum, died in a car accident when he was 24 years old.
A statement from the police says Kiptum lost control of his car near Kaptagat in the southwest of Kenya at 11 p.m. The car drove off the road, into a ditch, and then hit a tree.
Nation says that when the first rescuers got there, he was already dead.
Gervais Hakizimana, his 36-year-old coach, also died in the crash. A third person who was hurt in the accident was taken to the hospital.
Kiptum started running competitively when he was a youth. He got better and better until he was one of the best marathon runners in the world by 2022. At the Valencia Marathon that year, he won in 2:01:53, which was the fourth-fastest time ever. It was his first time running that far.
The next year, he won the London Marathon and then set a new record in Chicago. On October 8, Kiptum ran the 42.195-kilometer course in 2:00:35, beating the old record by 34 seconds and becoming the first man to run a race in less than 2:01:00.
Because of how quickly he rose through the ranks, Kiptum was seen as the clear favorite for the upcoming Olympics in Paris and a possible candidate to break the legendary 2-hour limit. Those hopes were dashed when he died.
Fans, his wife, and their two kids will miss him.
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