Family had lost hope in new star Kiptum, says uncle

The family of record-breaking Kelvin Kiptum had given up on the youngster after he showed signs of losing interest in secondary school education.

This is according to his uncle Kiplagat Cheruiyot who narrated Kiptum’s serge to global athletics excellence that has since been anchored by his new record in men’s marathon after clocking 2:00:35 in Chicago last Sunday.

Cheruiyot says, some of the family members questioned Kiptum’s potential to succeed in athletics and wanted him to concentrate on his education since he had no shoes even for training and no one could take him seriously.

“He started training at a young age. He had stopped school where he was to upgrade his certificate as an electrician. When he started running, we told him he was headed nowhere, we saw him as a useless young man who had lost focus in life. By that time, we did not see any future for him since he had no running shoes. He even went ahead to borrow sports shoes from Geofrey Kamworor unsuccessfully,” Cheruiyot grinned.

Kiptum who has now won Chicago, London and Valencia Marathons in three years was first taken seriously when he won the 2018 Family Bank Half Marathon in Eldoret and took home some cash.\

He gained more respect at home when he trounced his peers at the Kass Half Marathon in November 2019 as narrated by Cheruiyot.