Kelvin Kiptum Cheruiyot (2 December 1999 – 11 February 2024) was a Kenyan long-distance runner who currently holds the marathon world record.

[10] He and his coach died in a car crash on 11 February 2024 in Kaptagat, a settlement in rural Kenya used as a training place for long-distance runners.

[11][note 1] He grew up in Chepsamo village, Marakwet District, Chepkorio, a high-altitude (~2,600 m) area in Elgeyo-Marakwet County of Kenya's Rift Valley.

He participated in six other races that year, touring north and west Europe,[11] and won the Kass Half Marathon in Kenya in November.

[17] In December of that year, the then-21-year-old set a significant personal best in the Spanish Valencia Half Marathon at 58:42, placing sixth.

Only his compatriot and then-world record holder Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele had run faster up to that point.

[26][27] He ran at the front after the 15K checkpoint, without a pacemaker after halfway, and alone from 30th kilometre onward, beating the runner-up—his compatriot Benson Kipruto—by almost three and a half minutes.

Gervais Hakizimana stated that Kiptum logged 250 to 280 km (155–173 mi) per week in the lead-up to that year's London Marathon in April.

[35][36][37][38] Local police stated that Kiptum lost control of his car and veered off the road, before entering a ditch and colliding with a tree.

It was only earlier this week in Chicago, the place where Kelvin set his extraordinary marathon world record, that I was able to officially ratify his historic time.

[44] Kiptum was buried at his farm in Naiberi following a funeral ceremony in Chepkorio on 23 February 2024 that was also attended by Sebastian Coe and Kenyan president, William Ruto.