It’s a cruel twist of fate.
On a balmy Sunday night, what started as an online rumour turned into an unimaginable nightmare.
Kenya, and indeed the world, has lost marathon record holder, Kelvin Kiptum, in a fatal accident along the Eldoret-Marakwet-Eldama Ravine road at around 11pm, local time, alongside his Rwandese coach Gervais Hakizimana.
At that moment, the country was in the middle of watching the Africa Cup of Nations final between Nigeria and hosts Cote d’Ivoire, the eventual winners, when the nightmare started unfolding. Kiptum has been plucked away from us at the tender age of 24.
Let’s rewind back to another mild Sunday night, but this time the date is May 15, 2011.
Again, football was on the menu, in the English Premier League where titans Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool were in action against Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur. Around 1am local time, rumours started circulating before the worst was confirmed.
Olympic champion and record holder, Samuel Kamau Wanjiru was no more. He was also plucked away at the tender age of 24.
At the time of their deaths, Kiptum and Wanjiru were London Marathon course record holders and reigning Chicago Marathon champions.
It has taken almost 13 years (for those who believe in triskaidekaphobia) for the country to mourn a bright marathon star gone too soon.
Tragic coincidence or an ill sense of deja vu?
Wanjiru had already tasted Olympic success at Beijing 2008 — when he unified the country by running two hours, six minutes and 32 seconds to become the first Kenyan male to win the title.
Before his untimely demise under circumstances that are still under an inquest, Wanjiru had told of his desire to run the marathon in under two hours.
At the time, the assertion was dismissed by marathon glitterati, including former record holder Paul Tergat, now the country’s Olympics chief and retired Ethiopian icon, Haile Gebrselassie. According to his then coach, Italian Claudio Berardelli, Wanjiru had worked himself back to imposing form after struggling to win the 2010 Chicago Marathon while injured in what ultimately became his most memorable Marathon Majors win.
A possible world marathon record assault was planned for September, 2011, before that infamous fall from his balcony at his Nyahururu home led to an outpouring of international grief.
He had been given leave by his management, Rosa Associati earlier that Sunday to attend a court hearing in Nyahururu on Monday, May 16, having been charged with assaulting his wife Trizah Njeri with a gun.
Luminaries such as the then London Marathon director, Hugh Brasher and Mary Wittenberg, the former CEO of New York Road Running, organisers of New York Marathon, attended his funeral a fortnight later.
The World Marathon Major trophy was renamed in his honour and although his grave on the remote Ol-Ojoro-Orok plateau in central Kenya is largely unattended, the diminutive but powerfully built icon will never be forgotten.
For those who knew and interacted with Wanjiru, each passing year is a horrible reminder of what might have been.
At 24, Kiptum already owns three of the top seven times in the all-time marathon list, with each of his three performances inside one year setting records.
Virtually unknown, he stormed to the scene in December, 2022, when he won the Valencia Marathon in a course record of 2:01:53 — the then fastest debut ever as he became only the third man to break the 2:02 barrier.
Come April last year, he scorched the London Marathon course record with the scarcely believable 2:01:25, that was only 14 second shy of the former world record of 2:01:09 run by Eliud Kipchoge at the 2022 Berlin Marathon.
Like Wanjiru before him, Kiptum claimed his signature Marathon Majors victory in sensational fashion in the windy city of Chicago.
Here, he not only obliterated the world record but became the first man under 2:01 when he stopped the clock at an almost inexplicable 2:00:35.
But he was not satisfied.
At the time of his tragic accident, Kiptum was training for an attempt to go under the mythical 2:00 threshold, an ambition he harboured like Wanjiru, at the world record eligible course of Rotterdam in Holland on April 13.
Kipchoge breached that barrier at the specially prepared “INEOS 1:59 Challenge” where he ran 1:59:40 in Vienna, Austria on October 12, 2019, but the preset conditions and pacing ruled it out as a permissible world record.
Kiptum’s performance in Chicago installed him as an early favourite for the Olympic title at the Paris 2024 Summer Games, with the anticipated showdown of the ages against two-time winner, Kipchoge the talk of the distance running world.
Wanjiru died without owning the world record. Kiptum has passed on without owning the world title. Both did not live to fulfil what they believed was their destiny.
It might take another generation for Kenya to see extraordinary marathon-running talent like Wanjiru and Kiptum.
What we can all hope for is when such precocious talent emerges, the country will take better care and wrap it in cotton wool.
For now, rest in peace Kiptum, continue resting in peace Wanjiru.
Even though they never met, perhaps they will take on each other for the world record and Olympic title in the after world.
The writer is a Sports Producer at CGTN Africa based in Nairobi
