Daily Times

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.

The two Kenyans could cross swords at the Paris Olympics next year with Kipchoge possibly gunning for his third gold after Rio in 2016 and the covid-delayed 2020 Games in Tokyo.