Eliud Kiptanui (born 6 June 1989) is a Kenyan long distance runner who specialises in the marathon. He won the 2010 Prague International Marathon and has a personal best of 2:05:21 hours. He represented his country at the

2011 World Championships in Athletics The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in th ...

Biography

Kiptanui was born and raised in Kaplelach, Uasin Gishu District. He was the first child in a family of six and, like many Kenyans, he studied up to secondary school level. Kiptanui began to take running seriously after leaving school at 16, using the prize money to help pay for his sibling's education. He was encouraged by his performance in a 15 km race in Kenya in 2008, noting that although he finished in ninth place, all those who finished ahead of him were elite runners. Kiptanui travelled to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

in July 2009 to compete in the 3000 metres at the

Bislett Games The Bislett Games is an annual track and field meeting at the Bislett Stadium in Oslo, Norway. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now part of the Diamond League. History The first international athletics meeting at Bisl ...

, where he finished in fifth position. However, it was a performance in his native Kenya which attracted the attention of

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

manager Volker Wagner. Kiptanui won the Safaricom Marathon in

Kisumu Kisumu ( ) is the third-largest city in Kenya after the capital, Nairobi, and the coastal city of Mombasa (census 2019). It is the third-largest city after Kampala and Mwanza in the Lake Victoria Basin. Apart from being an important polit ...

in December of that year with a time of 2:12:17 hours, outrunning the second-place finisher by a margin of over seven minutes. Kiptanui intended to make his European marathon debut at the

Vienna Marathon The Vienna City Marathon is an annual marathon race over the classic distance of 42.195 km held in Vienna, Austria since 1984. History The first edition was held on with a total of 794 competitors. It is Austria's largest road running event ...

in April 2010, but his travel schedule was disrupted by the Eyjafjallajökull eruption and he instead settled for the Prague Marathon three weeks later as an alternative. He methodically paced himself in the race, first overtaking Denis Ndiso and then the race favourite Yemane Tsegay. Kiptanui completed the second half of the race faster than the first and was rewarded with a new personal best time and course record of 2:05:39, raising him into the top twenty fastest ever marathon runners in only his second race over the distance. This was in spite of the fact that the Prague course is not a fast one, as it covers several kilometres of

cobblestones Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Setts, also called Belgian blocks, are often casually referred to as "cobbles", although a sett is distinct fr ...

. Kiptanui pledged to use the US$75,000 prize money to help his brothers and sisters attend school in Kenya. He was touted as a possible winner at the 2010 Berlin Marathon, but he ended the race in fifth place with a time of 2:08:05 while compatriot Patrick Makau took the honours. His first race of 2011 was the

Rotterdam Marathon The Rotterdam Marathon, currently branded NN Rotterdam Marathon, is an annual marathon that has been held in Rotterdam, Netherlands since 1981. It has been held in April every year since the third edition in 1984 and attracts many top athletes ...

and came fifth, some minutes off the winner Wilson Chebet. He was chosen to compete for Kenya at the

. He was among the leaders at the 25 km mark, but gradually fell behind after 30 km and finished the race in sixth place. He ran the second best time of his career at the 2012 Seoul International Marathon, taking third place in a Kenyan podium sweep with a time of 2:06:44 hours. In his two other outings that year he came eighth at the 2012 Berlin Marathon then second at the

Beijing Marathon The Beijing Marathon () is an annual marathon race held around October in Beijing, People's Republic of China, since 1981. The race begins at Tiananmen Square and finishes in Celebration Square in Olympic Green. The full marathon is the onl ...

Achievements

*All results regarding marathon, unless stated otherwise

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kiptanui, Eliud 1989 births Living people People from Uasin Gishu County Sportspeople from Rift Valley Province Kenyan male long-distance runners Kenyan male marathon runners 20th-century Kenyan people 21st-century Kenyan people