How would you react if you shattered a world record without even realizing it? That’s exactly what Jacob Kiplimo did when he clocked a jaw-dropping 56:42 in the Barcelona Half Marathon last February. “That day, I was just going there to run a good race, but unfortunately, I got the record,” Kiplimo told journalists with a grin. But will the world record holder slow down now? Certainly not. Just months after smashing the mark by 48 seconds, Kiplimo is already chasing another, and experts believe he’s well on track to do it again.

Former marathon world record holder Paul Tergat believes Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo and Kenya’s John Korir have proven that the late Kelvin Kiptum’s world record is living on borrowed time. The duo launched a fearless assault on Kiptum’s 2:00:35 mark during the Chicago Marathon. Tergat, whose own world record stood for four years before Haile Gebrselassie broke it with a 2:04:26 run in Berlin in 2007, sees history repeating itself. “Of course, that time will be lowered as time goes by. I am hopeful that in the near future, that mark will come down,” Tergat told The Star.

At the Chicago Marathon, the duo launched a fearless attack at Kiptum’s 2:00:35 mark, which he set in 2013. The duo stormed through the initial 5 km in 13:58 (ahead of Kiptum’s 14:26) and 10 km in 28:25. By the time they reached the halfway mark, they had already clocked 1:00:16, slicing over half a minute off Kiptum’s split of 1:00:48. They continued with their blistering speed and stayed on the course through 25 km in 1:11:12, but fatigue crept in after 30km, where Kiplimo broke away from Korir with a decisive move.

Kiplimo crossed the 30km mark in 1:25:21 and 35km in 1:39:53, still ahead of Kiptum’s record splits. However, the punishing tempo caught up by 40km, as Kiplimo slowed slightly to 1:55:10 before crossing the line in 2:02:23. Well, he certainly failed to break the record this time, but for Tergat, it’s proof that Kiptum’s record may not stand for long.  “The first half was so fast that Kiplimo burned himself out towards the end. You could tell that in the last two or three kilometers, he was finished,” Tergat observed. “Our late Kiptum maintained a steady pace that got faster gradually until the end, and that’s how he broke the world record.”

He further expressed, “Our late Kiptum maintained a steady pace that got faster gradually until the end, and that’s how he broke the world record.” Praising Kiplimo, the veteran added, “I’m happy he finished strong and ran a great race.” The Ugandan certainly aspired to become one of the greats, but why did he start sprinting? Let’s find out.

“Started running to become a champion,” says Jacob Kiplimo

At just 15, he made history as Uganda’s youngest Olympian, competing in the 5000m at Rio 2016. A year later, on home turf in Kampala, he claimed the U20 crown at the World Cross Country Championships. By 2020, in his first year as a senior, he captured the world half-marathon title in Gdynia, and in 2021, he shattered the half-marathon world record in Lisbon with an astonishing 57:31. When asked about why he started sprinting, the athlete explained, “When I was young, I started running at school because it’s a tradition in my district. I started running to become a champion.”

He further added, “My main dream at that age was to go to Europe to compete. After that, I wanted to become a champion. The first people who helped me were coaches Alex Malena and Saket Benat when I was 15 years old. Robert Chemonges also helped during that early stage of my career. After that, Giuseppe Giambrone with Federico and Gabriele Rosa, gave me the opportunity to grow in Italy. Now Federico and the Rosa management agency are taking care of the next level of my career, helping to develop not only me but also my training group, which is very important to me, as well as the facilities at our new training camp in Kapchorwa.”

The athlete is already running all over the world, making a name for himself with a world record to his credit. Kiplimo is determined to etch his name into the annals of history, but whether he will achieve this, as predicted by Paul Tergat, remains to be seen.