Marathon World Record breaker Kelvin Kiptum steers clear of two-hour mark talk
Reading Time: 2min | Wed. 11.10.23. | 14:57
Kelvin Kiptum says he is focused on bettering his personal best, 2:00:35, and not thinking of running a marathon under 2 hours
Kenya's freshly-minted marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum says he has "no plan" to try and run under the mythic two-hour mark.
Kiptum was speaking in Nairobi on Tuesday, back home 48 hours after slicing 34 seconds off the previous best time set by his compatriot Eliud Kipchoge.
Only 23 and competing in just his third marathon Kiptum lit up the streets of Chicago on Sunday to clock two hours and 35 seconds.
"I've got no plan to run under two hours but only to improve my own record," said Kiptum who had won on his debut over the 26.2 mile (42.195km) distance last December in Valencia, doubling up in London in April.
Kiptum was tearing up the marathon record books one month after Kipchoge celebrated his fifth win in the Berlin Marathon where he had established the old record of 2:01:09 in 2022.
Kipchoge, at 38, 15 years Kiptum's senior, has broken the two-hour barrier when he clocked 1:59:40 but that was achieved with the aid of pacemakers in a project backed by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos in Vienna in 2019 and consequently not recognised by World Athletics.
Kiptum, who has only run the marathon thrice in his professional career, also revealed that his training programmes have always been tailored to condition him as a full marathoner.
"I was predominantly focused on doing half marathons but even then all my training programmes were really full marathon oriented. That's why I have transitioned into marathons seamlessly." He said.
Additional reporting by AFP
