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Kipchoge cracks, Kiptum demise and world records galore - Kenya athletics in 2024
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Reading Time: 6min | Tue. 31.12.24. | 17:41
Mozzart Sport, in no particular order, goes through the biggest moments of an Olympics year that will definitely go down in memory
The 2024 athletics scene - at least from a Kenyan perspective - was one characterized with lots of highs, but still punctuated with devastating lows.
From road and track domination, Kenya had its prideful moments, but on the other hand, lost an up-and-coming star, while the anti-doping dragnet captured notable athletes.
Mozzart Sport, in no particular order, goes through the biggest moments of an Olympics year that will go down in memory.
Kiptum’s shocking demise
Kenya and the world are yet to come to terms with marathoner Kelvin Kiptum’s death in a tragic road accident along the Eldoret-Kaptagat road on Sunday 11 February.
The 24-year-old, who a few months before his sudden passing (October 2023) broke the men’s marathon record in Chicago with a time of two hours and 35 seconds, was in the company of his coach - Gervais Hakizimana - who also died on the spot.
Kiptum’s rise to the world stage was as unprecedented as it gets, as he announced himself by winning at Valencia and London marathons before claiming the 2023 World Athlete of the Year for men's out of stadia award.
With his name on the 2024 Olympics men’s marathon team, and with years on his side, many still wonder what Kiptum would have achieved.
Continue resting in peace Kelvin Kiptum!
Kenya rules the cross country
The ultimate milestone of cross-country success this year came at the World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade where Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet retained her title, becoming the first woman to win back-to-back titles since Tirunesh Dibaba in 2006.
She led a Kenyan sweep of the top five positions to take team gold ahead of Ethiopia and Uganda.
Lilian Rengeruk secured individual silver and Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi took bronze.
In hindsight, Chebet’s victory was just but a show of good things to come.
Kipyegon settles concern with world record
Faith Kipyegon, who had a relatively late start to her season due to an injury, opened her campaign with victory at the Kenyan trials in 3:59.98, a Kenyan all-comers’ record that rightly contained all questions regarding her form going into a busy athletics calendar.
And as if that was not enough, the 30-year-old just three weeks later reduced her own world record to 3:49.04.
The Kenyan, making her Diamond League debut in Paris, outsprinted Australia’s Jessica Hull, who finished second in an Oceanian record of 3:50.83.
Chebet breaks 10,000m world record
In a new one for Kenya, the 10,000m Olympic trials were staged far away in Eugene, USA - the perfect stage where Beatrice Chebet crashed Gudaf Tsegay’s world record attempt to become the first woman to cover 25 laps of the track within 29 minutes.
In what was just her third 10,000m race to date, the Kenyan clocked 28:54.14 to obliterate Letesenbet Gidey’s previous world record of 29:01.03.
Agnes Ngetich breaks women's world 10km record
Kenya’s Agnes Ngetich started her year on a high by running a world 5km record of 14:13 on her way to a world 10km record of 28:46 in Valencia.
The 23-year-old with this feat bettered Yalemzerf Yehualaw's 2022 record by 28 seconds, becoming the first woman to run 10km in under 29 minutes.
In yet a brilliant breakthrough campaign, Ngetich went on to narrowly miss two world records: the womens-only 10km record in Herzogenaurach, Germany, and the women’s world half marathon record in an impressive win on her Valencia Half Marathon debut in October.
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Kipyegon completes three-peat
Having already secured silver over 5000m at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Kipyegon dominated the 1500m as she had done at so many recent global championships, winning by more than a second in an Olympic record of 3:51.29.
The achievement, followed up with triumphs in Tokyo and Rio, saw Kipyegon become the first woman to win three Olympic golds in a track discipline.
Chepngetich shocks world with marathon world record
Having agonisingly close in recent years at the same stage, Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich inscribed her name in the history books by running 2:09:56 at the Chicago Marathon in October.
The 2019 world marathon champion made a tremendous improvement on the previous world record of 2:11:53 (set in a mixed-gender race), lowering it by almost two minutes to become the first woman to cover the distance under 2:10.
By doing that, she also shaved more than four minutes off her previous personal best of 2:14:18.
Chebet reigns in Paris
Four days after winning a highly dramatic 5000m (her and Kenya’s first gold medal at the Olympic Games in Paris), Beatrice Chebet added another Olympic gold to her collection by winning the 10,000m in Paris in 30:43.25 and becoming the first Kenyan winner of the title.
With the massive achievement, Chebet joined Sifan Hassan and Tirunesh Dibaba as just the third woman in history to win the 5000m/10,000m double at the Olympic Games.
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Doping rocks hard
Taking a leaf from 2023, 2024 saw a host of Kenyan athletes dragged through the doping mire once more, with the biggest casualties this year being rising star Emmaculate Anyango, who was banned for six years following her positive doping test for testosterone and the blood-boosting hormone EPO.
World Championship 10,000 meters bronze medalist Rhonex Kipruto was the other high-profile athlete nabbed, with irregularities in his Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) resulting to a six-year ban that also saw him stripped of his top honors.
Kenyan long-distance runner Josephine Chepkoech on the other hand received a seven year ban after violating anti-doping rules for the second time in her career.
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All hail Wanyonyi
In a season in which David Rudisha’s legendary world record of 1:40.91 seemed to be living on borrowed time, Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi became the youngest man to win an Olympic 800m title with a third personal best timing of 2024.
The 20-year-old produced a late finish to nudge ahead of Canadian Marco Arop to ensure Kenya won men’s 800m gold for the fifth successive Summer Games.
In Lausanne two weeks later, Wanyonyi lowered his PB to a world-leading 1:41.11 moving to joint second on the world all-time list.
He concluded his season by winning at the Diamond League Final in Brussels.
Ojuka saves Kenya's blushes at Paris Paralympics
Long-jumper Samson Ojuka made history at the Paralympic Games in Paris by winning Kenya’s only medal at the games.
The Kenyatta University law student recorded a fourth jump of 6.20 to take the T37 silver medal, which was also Kenya's first field event medal since Mary Nakhumincha's javelin silver in Beijing 2008.
And so while the Kenyan paralympians failed to win a medal on track, Ojuka delivered!
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Kipchoge shows cracks once again
In a year that perhaps painted the legendary Eliud Kipchoge as 'mere mortal' in athletics sense, the 40-year-old went from winning the Berlin Marathon in 2023 to placing 10th at the Tokyo Marathon in March.
The outcome of that marathon was met with calls for him to be dropped from the Olympics marathon team, and while that was misguided by then, the former world marathon record holder ended up recording a new low in Paris, pulling out of a hattrick attempt shortly after crossing the 31km mark.
In hindsight, the lowest ebb of his career had more to do with his tribulations off the road, where he was a target of vicious online and even personal attacks.
In other notable moments, Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir improved the women-only world marathon record by 45 seconds in London as she clocked 2:16:16, while world half marathon champion Sabastian Sawe ran the fastest marathon time this year (2:02.05) in his first full marathon debut in Valencia.
One would hope the highs continue in 2025, with the rare disappointments diminishing.
Happy New Year 2025!
