Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich

Wilson Kipsang

Wilson Kipsang at the 2012 London Marathon
Personal information
Full name	Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich
Born	(1982-03-15) 15 March 1982 Keiyo, Kenya
Height	1.82 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in) (2012)
Weight	62 kilograms (137 lb) (2012)
Sport
Country	Kenya
Sport	Long-distance running
Event(s)	Marathon
Club	Kenya Police
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	Marathon: 2:03:23 (2013) – WR 10,000 m: 28:37.0 (2007)
Medal record Men's Athletics Competitor for  Kenya Olympic Games Bronze 2012 London Marathon
Updated on 14 August 2012.

Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich (born 15 March 1982) is a Kenyan athlete who specialises in long-distance running, competing in events ranging from 10 km to the marathon. He was the bronze medallist in the marathon at the 2012 Summer Olympics.^[1] He is the current world record holder in the marathon with a time of 2:03:23, which he set at the 2013 Berlin Marathon. He has run under 2 hours 5 minutes for the marathon on four separate occasions.

Kipsang is a two-time winner of the Frankfurt Marathon (2010 and 2011) and has also won the London and Berlin Marathons. He holds the twelfth best time over the half marathon distance (58:59 minutes).

Career

A native of Keiyo District in Kenya, Kipsang began competitive running for Kenya Police, and finished second in the 10 kilometre Tegla Loroupe Peace Race.^[2] He became a professional international athlete in 2007 and that year he took second place at the Tilburg Ten Miles, recording a time of 46:27,^[3] and he won a road race in Hem (his time of 27:51 was the fourth fastest in a 10 km race that year).^[4] He also took third place at the Kenyan Police Force championships, finishing behind Richard Mateelong.^[5]

At the World's Best 10K, he finished third with a time of 28:09 behind Deriba Merga and Silas Kipruto.^[6]

He returned to the Tilburg Ten Miles race in 2008, and again finished as runner-up – just two seconds behind winner Abiyote Guta.^[7] His peak of the year was in a half marathon race: the Delhi Half Marathon. Kipsang pushed Merga, the 2006 World Road Running Champion, right up to the line but finished one second behind him. Despite the second place finish, Kipsang improved his best by over one minute to 59:16.^[8] His time was also the third fastest half marathon by any runner that year, with Merga and Haile Gebrselassie ahead of him by just one second each.^[9]

Kipsang started 2009 strongly, winning the Egmond Half Marathon in chilly conditions.^[10] Another good performance followed when he took second at the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon^[11] – his time of 58:59 made him only the fourth runner to have run below 59 minutes.^[12] At his second World's Best 10K he finished third, repeating his feat from the previous year.^[13] Despite being the favourite for the 2009 Berlin Half Marathon,^[14] he ended up in third place in a fast race which was the first occasion in which all the top-four runners finished under an hour.^[15]

He competed in the World 10K Bangalore in May 2009, and finished fourth.^[16] He competed in his first IAAF World Half Marathon Championships at the end of that year, taking fourth place with a time of 1:00:08.

In 2010 he made his marathon debut in Paris in April 2010, and he finished third in a time of 2:07:13 hours, half a minute behind winner Tadesse Tola.^[17] He won the Frankfurt Marathon in October in a new course record of 2:04:57, this time beating Tadesse by over a minute.^[18] The time made him the eighth fastest marathoner ever.^[19] He won his third marathon at the 2011 Lake Biwa Marathon, defeating Deriba Merga to win in a course record of 2:06:13.^[20] He returned to defend his title at the Frankfurt Marathon and set about attacking Patrick Makau's five-week-old world record. Kipsang came within four seconds of the time, crossing the line after 2:03:42, and ended the race with the second fastest marathon time ever.^[21]

Kipsang began 2012 with a third place finish at the RAK Half Marathon.^[22] He won the London Marathon in April in 2:04:44, just 4 seconds short of the course record set the previous year by Emmanuel Mutai. Starting as favourite he went on to win the bronze medal in the men's marathon at the London 2012 Olympic games.^[1][23] One month after the Olympics, he travelled to Newcastle to win the Great North Run in 59:06. That December he won the Honolulu Marathon.^[24]

He opened 2013 by continuing his winning line, taking the title at the New York Half Marathon.^[25] He was among the favourites for the 2013 London Marathon, but he managed only fifth place, timing 2:07:47 for the distance.^[26] He stepped down to the 10K for the Great Manchester Run and although he beat Haile Gebrselassie, he was runner-up by one second to Moses Kipsiro.^[27] He performed less well at the Bogotá Half Marathon, taking fifth place with 1:05:26 hours.^[28] On September 29 he won the Berlin Marathon and set a new world record of 2:03:23, 15 seconds faster than the previous record by Patrick Makau.^[29]

Achievements

Wilson Kipsang in his World Record-setting run at the 2013 Berlin Marathon.

International competition record

Road running circuit

Personal bests

Source – Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich profile at IAAF.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich.

• Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich profile at IAAF

Records
Preceded by Patrick Makau Musyoki	Men's Marathon World Record Holder 29 September 2013 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent