By Peter Ochieng
Former world marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge has for the first time, at least publicly, opened up on how the ‘link’ to death of world record holder Kelvin Kiptum affected his life.
Kiptum died in February alongside his coach, Gervais Hakizimana after being involved in an accident in Elgeyo Marakwet county.
The slain marathoner had set a new world marathon record of 2 hours and 35 seconds during the Chicago marathon in October 2023, breaking Kipchoge’s record of 2: 01: 09 set in 2022.
Some Kenyans online resorted to abusing Kipchoge, claiming that he had a hand in Kiptum’s death. Speaking to BBC Sport Africa, Kipchoge said the wrongful accusations negatively affected him, to the point that he feared for his life, and the lives of his loved ones.
“I was shocked that people on social media platforms are saying ‘Eliud is involved in the death of this boy,'” the 39-year-old said.
“That was my worst news ever in my life. I received a lot of bad things; that they will burn the (training) camp, they will burn my investments in town, they will burn my house, they will burn my family. It did not happen but that is how the world is.”
He said when the romours of his involvement started flaying around, he had to make sure that his family was safe.
“I don’t have power to go to police and tell them my life is in danger. So my concern was actually to tell my family to be extra conscious and cautious. I started to call a lot of people. I got really scared of my children going to school and coming back. Sometimes they bike around, but we had to stop them because you never know what will happen. We started to drop them off and pick them up in the evening,” said the two-times Olympics champion.
“My girl was in boarding school – that was positive that she had no access as far as social media is concerned – but it’s tough for my boys to hear ‘Your dad has killed somebody’.”
“My worst moment was when I tried to call my mum.She told me ‘Just take care’ and ‘A lot has been going on.’ Where I come from is a really local area. And with the age of my mum, I really realised that social media can go everywhere. But she gave me courage. It was really a tough month,” he added.
Kipchoge has made the shortlist for Kenyan’s men marathon team for the Paris 2024 Olympics, where he will try to become the first man to win the Olympics title three times.