Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum is likely to be the next superstar of athletics, says Arto Bryggare.
Kelvin Kiptum shrugged off the London Marathon on Sunday. PDO
– 27.50 in the tenth interval at the marathon. The result is harder than Lasse Virénin old record on the track. Absolutely incomprehensible, enthuses Iltalehti’s athletics expert Arto Bryggare.
of Kenya Kelvin Kiptum made an incredible result at the London Marathon the other Sunday, when he stopped the clocks at 2:01:25. The result is the second best in history with a distance of just over 42 kilometers. The second half of Kiptum’s performance is confusing: he did it in 59.45. The split time from thirty to forty kilometers was 27:50.
Before Lasse Virén broke through in the 1972 Olympic Games, the 10,000-meter track run record set earlier in the same season by the Myrkylä resident was 27.52.4. In the end, the time was the fifth best of Virén’s career.
– The London marathon is not the slowest in the world, but it is far from Berlin. London belongs to the middle class, because the track has curves and stewards who steer wrongly, Bryggare spoils Kiptum’s running conditions.
– Two hours is not a utopian time for him. I wonder if the man hasn’t received a letter of invitation from Berlin, which already has a few hundred thousand dollars in start-up money on the first page, the expert continues.
Berlin is considered to be possibly the fastest marathon in the world due to the course profile and the weather in Germany in general in September. Eliud Kipchoge38, ran last season in the German capital on the 2.01.09 valid ME.
Without a coach
Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum could be track and field’s next superstar. ZumaWire / MVPHOTOS
In recent months, Kiptum, 23, has risen from near-obscurity to the awareness of people who follow endurance running. According to the results bank of the International Association of Athletics Federations, the man had a dozen races, mainly road races, before the 2:01.53 result was shaken at the Valencia Marathon in December 2022.
– It is not terribly wrong to say that he is a future superman for the marathon and many other journeys. When a 23-year-old runs a marathon in 2.01.25, only the sky is the limit.
Usually you come to the marathon through the longest track runs, but Kiptum’s track running history is almost non-existent. Kimpi’s record of 28:27.87 ranks 2,400 in the world’s all-time statistics.
Another special feature of Kiptum is that he has been coaching himself since childhood. He has had a counselor for less than a year.
– That is depressing information for world endurance running coaching, Bryggare smiles.
Of course, the runner’s noviceness was visible at the London marathon.
– He is not a genius in terms of running technique, but running is hard work. For example, Kiphchoge’s step is significantly prettier and more refined, Bryggare estimates.
– In London, he made terrible basic mistakes when he looked behind him every 30 seconds to see if someone was coming. He didn’t trust, even though he had run hard, that he would be able to stay away from the group. When Kiptum had turned his head about a million times, he stated that he could no longer see anyone behind him, the expert continues.
The winning time on Sunday on the island was almost three minutes better than that of the runner-up On Geoffrey Kamworor.