Kenyans on KOX (Twitter) are calling out former Marathon World record holder Eliud Kipchoge for not congratulating Kelvin Kiptum, who smashed the marathon world record at the 2023 Chicago Marathon and nearly became the first person to breach the two-hour mark.
The Kenyan completed the course in 2:00:35 to beat the previous record held by Kipchoge, which was set in Berlin a little over a year ago, by 34 seconds.
Soon after obliterating the record, the 23-year-old said he felt happy for his actions.
“I feel so happy. I was prepared, I knew I was coming for a course record, but fortunately [it was], a world record,” Kiptum said in a post-race interview.
Now KOX is wondering why Kipchoge has yet to congratulate his colleague nearly 48 hours later.
The drama online started with Alfred Koech-Sergent, a Kenyan based in Australia, who posted a message from a follower he identified as Kigen, questioning Kipchoge’s silence, and there was no shortage of response from Kenyans.
“Hello Alfred, Eliud Kipchoge should have congratulated Kelvin Kiptum for breaking his world record. 24 hours, after, no mention on his page with 1M followers. I have been a huge fan of Eliud since 2004. It’s unsportsmanlike (sic) to ignore Kelvin’s performance…” the message read.
His followers flooded the comment section with mixed reactions, with some agreeing with Kigen’s sentiments while others defended Kipchoge’s silence.
