Current marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum and his coach Gervais Hakizimana died in a road accident Sunday night outside the Rift Valley town of Eldoret, Kenyan police confirmed.
The 24-year-old Kenyan athlete, who was driving a Toyota Premio, and his coach died at the scene of the crash, Elgeyo Marakwet County Police Commander Peter Mulinge told CNN.
A third occupant survived with serious injuries, Mulinge added.
“He lost control, veered off the road, entered into a ditch 60 meters away and hit a big tree,” Mulinge said. The accident happened around 11 p.m. local time.
Kiptum’s world record marathon time of 2:00:35 set in the Chicago Marathon in October last year was ratified just days ago by World Athletics. He had only switched to running the marathon from shorter distance races a year before setting that record pace.
He improved his personal best time by 50 seconds to beat the 2:01:09 record set by fellow Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, who is widely considered the greatest marathoner of all time. Kiptum was widely believed to be the successor to Kipchoge, and a possible contender to run the marathon in under 2 hours.
Hakizimana, 36 was a former professional athlete from Rwanda who participated in different races from the 5,000 meter to the half marathon.
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