‘I’ll be home in 20 minutes’: Widow of Kelvin Kiptum's coach's recalls last phone call with husband

Kelvin Kiptum’s coach Gervais Hakizimana told his wife Joan Chelimo that he would be home “in 20 minutes.”

That was at 10.27pm last Sunday night. 

Their three-year-old daughter, Lyana Kezachelimo Hakizimana, was scheduled to join school, and they were discussing how they would enroll her, a discussion that had been left pending.

Earlier on Sunday, coach Hakizimana had called Chelimo at around 1pm and said he was going to visit a friend by the name Maiyo at Naiberi, near Kaptagat.

And then at around 5pm, he called again and said he was going to meet world marathon record holder Kelvin Kiptum, his athlete.

At 8.30pm, the coach called once again and said he was heading for dinner with Kiptum before heading home.

Read: Coach Gervais Hakizimana - How man of few words shaped Kiptum’s bright career

And then at 10.27pm, he said they were in the Kipkorgot area on the outskirts of Eldoret, and that he would be home “in 20 minutes,” promising to call as he approached. 

But that was not to be as when she later tried to reach him, he wasn’t picking up her calls, and this made Chelimo, a Nairobi-based businesswoman, worried. She went on calling and texting her husband until someone else picked up the call.

“When the call went through, he asked me who I was, and I answered that ‘I’m the wife of the owner of the phone…’ and he just said ‘sorry for what had happened.

“I was confused and I didn’t know what had happened,” narrated Chelimo when Nation Sport caught up with her at her sister Edanah Maiyo’s home in Kapseret on the outskirts of Eldoret yesterday. 

Struggling to comfort herself, Chelimo said her husband was always straightforward and meant what he said. She felt something terrible had happened. It was so unlike him not to pick up calls

The situation became worse when someone called her, asking for her husband’s whereabouts. She got scared and disconnected the call.

Her phone rang once again and she was asked the same question, but was also informed that Kiptum had been involved in an accident. This broke her completely, and she knew her husband might have been involved.

Chelimo revealed that Kiptum and Hakiziamana met a long time ago but they started training seriously during the Covid-19 pandemic period, and this had led to his great performances, starting with the Valencia Marathon where he recorded the fastest time as a debutant.

“My husband was to return to France, but a (coronavirus-enforced) lockdown caught him in Kenya and he started training with Kiptum,” she recalled.

“His training went on smoothly and he even came and told me that the athlete (Kiptum) was doing really well and had potential of getting to the top if he competed in a marathon race,” she said.

Read: Kiptum cruelly denied sub-two dream

She recalled that when Kiptum broke the world marathon record, Hakizimana was so happy, saying he had known he would do it as they headed to the Chicago Marathon.

“We spoke a lot when they were in Chicago and I would even tell him Kiptum would miss the record, but he asked me to be patient because his athlete was in good shape and would deliver a world record.

“Before the race, he was monitoring Kiptum all the time and wanted to see him train at all times,” added Chelimo.

Chelimo regrets that the fallen coach left a young family that needs support.

“He was there for his family and he raised Kenya’s status and even brought the idea of running a marathon in under two hours… and now he is no more.

Read: Tragic echoes of Wanjiru as we mourn world marathon record holder Kiptum

“I don’t know whom to turn to but I believe the governments of Kenya and Rwanda will collaborate in making sure we give him a befitting send-off,” said the 33-year-old Chelimo.

The couple met in 2010 and became good friends before they started living together in 2016. 

Chelimo described her husband as “loving, hardworking and always wanted the best from what he was pursuing”, terming the sub two-hour project as “the most important thing he wanted in his life.”

“I have lost a friend. I don’t even believe that I’m here before the press talking about him. This is like a bad dream to me that the most loving persona that I cherished is no more and it’s so painful to me,” said Chelimo.

She added that her husband had big plans for the family but had later shelved the plans and decided to concentrate on Kiptum’s training ahead of his next race at the Rotterdam Marathon on April 14 this year.

“He was ready to fight for anything and make sure athletes get the right programme and that is why he decided to come back from France to concentrate on Kiptum’s training because they were working on Kiptum’s project of running the Rotterdam Marathon in under two hours, something the coach believed would happen,” the teary Chelimo narrated.