Tears as Kiptum begins final race

It was pace-making, but in a different way from what happens on marathon tracks.

It involved big-name athletes walking in front of a hearse carrying the body of marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum. If this were a marathon, Kiptum would soon have joined the leading pack, seeking to smash yet another record.

But Thursday’s was a race that had him in a coffin inside a limousine-type hearse. For about 500 metres, the athletes led the way as the hearse trudged behind them.

No quests for personal bests. No kilometre-by-kilometre splits. No vests with numbers emblazoned on them. No hi-tech shoes. It was a race to an inevitable finishing line but which had come too soon for Kiptum.

The time was 7am and the assignment was to transport Kiptum’s body from a morgue in Eldoret to Iten, as the athlete’s journey on earth entered the homestretch.

After that walk, the athletes entered their cars and joined the procession that carried the body to Iten, about 35 kilometres away.

Whenever the masses saw the cortege, they could not help but stop to stare. In an area where seeing people running by the road in the morning is commonplace, there was no such sight. The stage had been left for Kiptum.

At around 10.20am, the procession arrived at Iten. The body was placed at Iten Stadium and members of the public and the large group of athletes in Iten came for viewing. 

After Iten, the cortege embarked on a journey of about 45 kilometres to St Peter’s ACK Church in Chepkorio, where a short service was held.

The road to Chepkorio is in an escarpment and is the track used for the Iten International Marathon. So, figuratively, Kiptum was running his last marathon in the grounds that nurtured him and hardened his bones to conquer the world.

The same road to Chepkorio was also replete with learners from primary and secondary schools who filled the roadsides, waving at the convoy.

Elsewhere, at the spot on the Eldoret-Kaptagat road where Kiptum died, locals were spotted taking selfies at the scene. Tragedy tourism? That might be another trail Kiptum might be blazing posthumously. Someone even got a wooden board and wrote the words “Kiptum Road”. 

At Chepkorio, the church’s crowd-holding capacities were tested as everybody wanted to go in to view the body. The body stayed there for about 45 minutes then was transported to Kapkenda Girls High School, where locals viewed the body and also where speeches were made.

Kaplenda is about a kilometre away from Chepsamo village, where Kiptum hails from. He will, however, be buried about 15 kilometres away at Naiberi, where a house has been under construction at record-setting speeds.

By Thursday evening, it was still toil and moil as the labourers endeavoured to complete it by the time of Friday’s burial. 

When all is done, Kiptum will be resting in a new abode outside a new home. Everything new.

The winds are blowing hard at the area, and they made the organisers shift the venue of the burial ceremony to the Agricultural Show of Kenya grounds in Chepkorio as they felled tents that had been set up at Chepsamo Primary School, the initial venue.

In all, Kiptum’s penultimate day before returning to dust was a day marked with gospel songs and dirges, among them ‘Cha Kutumaini Sina’. 

Chepkorio, an unassuming village, was warming up Thursday as various media houses set camp. Residents went about their business, awaiting Kiptum’s big day.

For the local athletes, the question is whether they will have to mourn another life gone too soon. Not too long ago, they coalesced to send off Agnes Tirop who was slain. Then there was Nicholas Bett who died in a road crash.

By the look of their sullen faces, one could see them wishing that they were cutting the final finishing tape to cases of athletes dying in their prime.