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Kiptum made his debut at last year's Valencia Marathon where he ran the third fastest time in history.
The 2022 Valencia Marathon champion Kelvin Kiptum on Sunday, April 23 obliterated a strong field to win the 2023 London Marathon men's race in a new personal best time of 2:01:25.
The time he posted shattered Eliud Kipchoge's record time of 2:02:37 that he set during the 2019 London Marathon. In the highly contested race, Geoffrey Kamworor and Tamirat Tola placed second and third in respective times of 2:04:23 and 2:04:49.
The men’s race started off with a pack of nine athletes passing through the 5km mark including Ethiopia’s Birhanu Legese leading the pack. Kiptum and defending champion Amos Kipruto followed closely behind him.
As the men passed the 10km mark, Kiptum took leadership honours and was closely followed by Legese and Kipruto. Multiple Olympic champion Sir Mo Farah was nowhere to be seen in the leading pack of nine.
Passing through the 15km mark, Kiptum was still leading the men with Brihanu and Kipruto closely following. Two-time New York City Marathon champion Geoffrey Kamworor was fourth behind the duo.
As the men were passing through the 20km mark, Kiptum was still leading but Kipruto had faded to fifth place behind Kamworor. At the 25km mark, Kipruto made a comeback to take second place behind Kiptum who was looking comfortable controlling the race.
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19:30 - 21.04.2023
ATHLETICS Kelvin Kiptum confident of flooring bigwigs at the London Marathon
Kiptum is the third fastest marathoner in the world.
As the men were passing through the 30km mark, Kiptum was still leading the pack with Kipruto following closely. At this point, Kamworor had bettered his position from fourth-place to third-place as world champion Tamirat Tola came from behind and was now running in fourth-place.
Kiptum then broke away from the lead pack after passing 30km and he was looking poised. Kamworor tried keeping up with him the gap was becoming wider.
Around the 40km mark, Kiptum was in a class of his own as his closest challenger Kamworor was far much behind him. Kipruto, the defending champion had faded to fifth place and had been overtaken by Ethiopia's Seifu Tura.
With the finish line in sight, Kiptum was looking comfortable with taking top honours, and at this time, the course record seemed to be at his mercy. He unleashed a finishing kick and sprinted to the finish line to shatter Eliud Kipchoge's course record time.
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