It is not often, fortunately, that a young champion, a world record holder, suddenly loses his life through a fatality, as hard to accept as road accidents are.
Let alone in Kenya, a country that historically in terms of world champions almost exclusively expresses middle-distance runners and specialists in the most gruelling and longest of races, the marathon.
The death of Kelvin Kiptum, who a few months ago had shattered the record belonging to another national glory, Eliud Kipchoge (the only man in the world to have gone under 2 hours, but in a non-sanctioned competition) and who had the age (24 years old) and power to go under the fateful quota, has totally involved Kenyans who have followed the various stages of the post-tragedy, to the point of taking to the streets, in the Rift Valley capital Eldoret and in downtown Nairobi, for a torchlight procession and vigil, before today's solemn funeral in the presence of President William Ruto.
First the mystery surrounding the incident, aired by Kiptum's family, with a mysterious meeting with four people, who were tracked down, detained and questioned but not held responsible for what happened, then the allegations of rushed autopsies by the Rwandan family of the great marathon runner's coach, Gervais Hakizimama. These too were denied by the further inspection of the government's chief anatomo-pathologist, who confirmed the deaths due to 'serious head injuries'.

Finally, the appearance of a girl, Edna, who asked for the funeral to be stopped in order to carry out a DNA test on the body of the deceased, with whom she claimed to have had a relationship and with whom she allegedly had a child.

The court did not consider her request, motivated by the fact that she was excluded from the inheritance, and the athlete's body was placed in the coffin that will return from Eldoret this morning to the village of her birth, in the now famous Iten mountains where the greatest champions of not only Kenyan but world running were born.
With the ceremony, Kenya says goodbye to an unfortunate exceptional runner who would surely have amazed the world again. His story will surely inspire many other talents and hopefully make inroads into many other young people to teach them to run much more on the athletics tracks and on the streets of the cities that host marathons, and much less in big cars that are often one of the first purchases made with the proceeds of victories and sponsorships.
Farewell Kelvin, champion for such a short time.