Celebrations in Nandi County went a notch higher after Daegu marathon champion Abraham Kiptum broke the world Half marathon during Valencia half marathon on Sunday.
Kitpum, who two weeks ago finished second behind Rhonex Kipruto during Isaiah Kiplagat Memorial Ndalat Gaa cross country, shed off four seconds to break the world half marathon that was held by Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese at 58:23 to 58:19 in Spain.
The two time Lagos marathon champion won Daegu marathon with a course record of 2:06.29 will take the world 21km record to Nandi county just like Eliud Kipchoge did in marathon where he broke Dennis Kimetto’s world record of 2:2.57 to 2:01.39 last month in Berlin marathon.
Kiptum’s coach Noah Bushienei was full of praise for the world record and the boy whom he started training five years ago.
“He made us proud. Since we started training together five years ago, he has been consistent with his career. He has the spirit of running fast that is why he has won many races he has competed in,” said Bushienei.
Bushienei added that the runner, who won double at the Lagos marathon has been training, not to win the race but get better time always, which has been a motivating factor.
“All the times, he will do some investigation on how top runners across the world run. Their styles and mode of running. That has made him understand what he wants in his career,” said Bushienei adding that if Kenya had many athletes of Kiptum’s caliber, who understands what they want then we will be winning all races across the world.
“If you study how he runs, he runs like Kipchoge (Eliud). If you can get ten athletes of such kind, the work of a coach becomes easy. They know the time to wake up to go for training. Like today, he ran almost 16km alone without pace makers, meaning he was running with time, not individuals,” added Bushienei.