{"id":27376,"date":"2024-02-23T18:52:47","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T15:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/27376\/marathon-hero-kelvin-kiptum-remembered\/"},"modified":"2024-02-23T18:52:49","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T15:52:49","slug":"marathon-hero-kelvin-kiptum-remembered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/?p=27376","title":{"rendered":"Marathon hero Kelvin Kiptum remembered for humility at funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Marathon hero Kelvin Kiptum remembered for humility at funeral\u060c<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum, who dreamed of breaking the two-hour barrier, was remembered for his talent and humility at a funeral service Friday in western Kenya.<\/p>\n<p>Kiptum, 24, and his coach Gervais Hakizimana were killed earlier this month in a car accident. <\/p>\n<p>The ceremony in the Rift Valley village of Chepkorio was attended by political and sporting dignitaries, including Kenyan President William Ruto and World Athletics President Sebastian Coe.<\/p>\n<p>Kiptum had only run three international marathons, but each was among the seven fastest times ever recorded.  He set the world record in Chicago last October in 2 hours and 35 seconds, taking 34 seconds from his compatriot Eliud Kipchoge.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline inline-photo full\">\n<figure><picture><source data- media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source data- media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"photoCaption\">Kelvin Kiptum intended to beat the marathon time by two hours. <cite>Photo by Michael Reaves\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cHe was a true superstar whose journey was on a spectacular upward trajectory,\u201d said Athletics Kenya president Jack Tuwei.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything indicated that he was going to break the two-hour barrier.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anglican Bishop Paul Korir, who presided over the service, highlighted Kiptum&#39;s humility and his links to the local community, where he had worked as a cattle herder and trained as an electrician before becoming a professional runner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe would dine with the great and powerful, and at the same time he would come and play billiards in Chepkorio,\u201d Korir said.<\/p>\n<p>Kiptum will be buried later Friday in a family plot near the town of Eldoret, where the government is building a house for his wife and two young children.<\/p>\n<p>His widow, Asenath Cheruto, said she and Kiptum, who had a traditional wedding in 2017, had planned to have a \u201ccolorful wedding ceremony\u201d in April.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have been the best husband and father to our children,\u201d Cheruto said.<\/p>\n<p>Kiptum had hoped to do two hours in a marathon in Rotterdam in April and was also due to make his Olympic debut in Paris this year in what could have been his first face-to-face with Kipchoge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marathon hero Kelvin Kiptum remembered for humility at funeral\u060c Marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum, who dreamed of breaking the two-hour barrier, was remembered for his talent and humility at a funeral service Friday in western Kenya. Kiptum, 24, and his coach Gervais Hakizimana were killed earlier this month in a car accident. The ceremony [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5418,1823,11125,10608,10609,10606,7525],"class_list":["post-27376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-funeral","tag-hero","tag-humility","tag-kelvin","tag-kiptum","tag-marathon","tag-remembered"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27378,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27376\/revisions\/27378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}