Eliud Kipchoge: My Training Mates Threatened To Burn My Family, Investments When Kelvin Kiptum Died

• Eliud Kipchoge revealed some of the people he had close contacts with joined the naysayers, implicating him in the tragic death of Kelvin Kiptum
• Kiptum, the world marathon record holder, perished in a nasty road accident in Elgeyo Marakwet in February 2024
• Conspiracy theorists would later come up with the assertions that Kipchoge had a hand in the accident, given that Kiptum shattered his record in the Chicago Marathon

Kai Eli, a journalist at TUKO.co.ke, brings more than three years of experience covering politics and current affairs in Kenya.

Marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge reveals his close friends and sportsmates dissented from him after he was maliciously linked to the tragic death of Kelvin Kiptum.

He spoke to BBC Sport on Tuesday, May 7, for the first time after sidelining himself from Kiptum's send-off.

The 39-year-old said his family was dragged into the midst of the storm after conspiracy theorists wrongly implicated him in the young marathoner's death.

Kiptum perished in a nasty road crash while in the company of his Rwandese coach, Gervais Hakizimana, in February this year.

The theorists had deduced that there existed bad blood between Kipchoge and Kiptum, especially after the latter shattered his senior's record in the men's division in the Chicago Marathon in October 2023.

Kiptum clocked 2:00:35 in his feat to beat Kipchoge's 2:01:09 set at the 2022 Berlin Marathon.

With the foregoing, Kipchoge was on an all-out mission to dim Kiptum's light, the theorists suggested.

How my close contacts betrayed me, Kipchoge

Kipchoge told the international media that the people he had close contact with, people he closely interacted with and some of whom he hit the training camp with, had joined his naysayers in the smear campaign.

At some point, he revealed, they threatened to set ablaze his investment, besides using arson threats to attack his family.

"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 was really painful for me to learn even from my own people, my training mates, those who I have contact with, and the bad words are coming from them," he revealed.

Kipchoge, Kiptum 'beef'

Those on Kipchoge's case argued that he never congratulated Kiptum when he broke his record in the Chicago Marathon.

Kipchoge's social media accounts remained unreactive to Kiptum's feat despite much prodding from the Kenyan netizens.

It, however, emerged that Kipchoge had hailed his junior during a press conference in Spain moments after he set the new record.

The marathoner had graced the Princess of Asturias 2023 awards ceremony in Oviedo when his mind was picked over Kiptum's feat.

Asked whether he was surprised someone would ever break his record, Kipchoge explained that competition was the beauty of the sport he was partaking in, stating that he was happy for Kiptum having challenged him.

Proofreading by Nyambura Guthua, journalist and copy editor at TUKO.co.ke