Kenyan Runner Kelvin Kiptum Remembered

Tributes poured in for Kenyan running sensation Kelvin Kiptum after the marathon world record-holder was killed in a car crash at the age of 24.

The death of Kiptum just months before the Paris Olympics has shocked Kenya and the world of athletics, with his rival, the legendary marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge saying he was "deeply saddened".

Kiptum, a father of two, was driving from Kaptagat to Eldoret in the Rift Valley, the heartland of Kenyan distance running when his car careered off the road and hit a tree.

Police said Kiptum and his Rwandan coach Gervais Hakizimana were killed on the spot while a woman passenger was injured.

"He lost control and veered off-road entering into a ditch on his left side. He drove in the ditch for about 60 meters before hitting a big tree," said an official police report from Elgeyo Marakwet County where the accident occurred.

Images on Kenyan media showed the mangled wreck of the vehicle, its windscreen shattered, the roof and doors buckled and almost ripped off.

From herding goats just a decade ago, Kiptum had announced he would attempt in April to become the first man to run an official marathon under the mythic two-hour mark.

He burst onto the marathon scene when he ran a world record 2:00:35 in Chicago in October, slicing 34 seconds off Kipchoge's previous record.

He was just 23 at the time, and competing in only his third marathon.

Kiptum also won his other two efforts -- his debut in Valencia in 2022 and a follow-up in London the following year -- recording three of the seven fastest marathon times in history.

As the tributes flowed, mourners gathered at the family home in the Rift Valley village of Chepsamo, consoling his father Samson Cheruiyot and his wife Asenath Rotich.

Kenyan President William Ruto described Kiptum as "one of the world's finest sportsmen who broke barriers to secure a marathon record".