Conseslus Kipruto


Conseslus Kipruto is a Kenyan middle distance runner who competes in the 3000 metre steeplechase. He won the gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, 2017 and 2019 World Championships. Kipruto also won the World Youth and in 2012 the World Junior titles in the steeplechase. He also ranks second on the all-time junior lists with 8:01.16. He set his personal best of 8:00.12 minutes at the Birmingham Diamond League event in 2016.

Career

Kipruto quickly rose through the younger categories of the sport, beginning from 2010. He won the Kenyan youth trials in the 2000 metres steeplechase with a world-leading mark of 5:29.3 minutes. At the 2011 World Youth Championships in Athletics he and teammate Gilbert Kiplangat Kirui ran away from the pack from the very start. Kipruto edged out his compatriot with a time of 5:28.65 minutes to take the gold medal and move up to seventh on the all-time youth rankings. He debuted in the 3000 metres steeplechase in Europe later that year, running 8:27.30 minutes to win at the Stadionfest Königs Wusterhausen.
At the start of 2012 he entered two high-profile cross country races, winning the Lotto Cross Cup de Hannut and placing second at the Cross de San Sebastián. He moved up to the 3000 m distance in the steeplechase and placed second at the Kawasaki Super Meet in Japan before running 8:08.92 minutes for fifth in his IAAF Diamond League debut in Doha. He beat Kirui to the Kenyan junior title and his teammate helped pace him at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics, where Kipruto won Kenya's 13th straight title in the event and ranked fourth on the all-time junior lists with a run of 8:06.10 minutes. He had his first big senior win soon after, beating Paul Kipsiele Koech at the Herculis 2012 Diamond League meet in a personal best of 8:03.49 minutes. He ranked sixth in the world that year. He also was runner-up at the Memorial van Damme and had a 3000 metres flat best of 7:44.09 minutes at the Rieti Meeting.
Kipruto made his first Kenyan cross country team in 2013. After a win at the Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza and third at the Cross Internacional de Itálica in Spain, he only just made the junior team at the Kenyan trials, placing sixth. He performed one place better at the 2013 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, helping Kenya to the junior team silver medal. Heading into the track season, he opened with a meet record of 8:01.16 minutes at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix, winning the first leg of the 2013 IAAF Diamond League steeplechase. This ranked him second on the all-time junior lists behind Stephen Cherono.

Major competition record

Personal bests