Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich


Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich 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. He is the former 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 4 minutes for the marathon on four separate occasions.
Kipsang is a double winner of the Frankfurt Marathon and has also won the London Marathon twice, New York Marathon, and Tokyo Marathon. He holds the twelfth best time over the half marathon distance.

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. 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, and he won a road race in Hem. He also took third place at the Kenyan Police Force championships, finishing behind Richard Mateelong.

2008

At the World's Best 10K, he finished third with a time of 28:09 behind Deriba Merga and Silas Kipruto.
He returned to the Tilburg Ten Miles race in 2008, and again finished as runner-up – just two seconds behind winner Abiyote Guta. 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. 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.

2009

Kipsang started 2009 strongly, winning the Egmond Half Marathon in chilly conditions. Another good performance followed when he took second at the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon – his time of 58:59 made him only the fourth runner to have run below 59 minutes. At his second World's Best 10K he finished third, repeating his feat from the previous year. Despite being the favourite for the 2009 Berlin Half Marathon, 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.
He competed in the World 10K Bangalore in May 2009, and finished fourth. 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.

2010

In April 2010 he made his marathon debut in the Paris Marathon, and finished third in a time of 2:07:13 hours, half a minute behind winner Tadesse Tola. He won the Frankfurt Marathon in October in a new course record of 2:04:57, this time beating Tadesse by over a minute. The time made him the eighth fastest marathoner ever.

2011

He won his third marathon at the 2011 Lake Biwa Marathon, defeating Deriba Merga to win in a course record of 2:06:13. 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.

2012

Kipsang began 2012 with a third-place finish at the RAK Half Marathon. 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. 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.

2013

He opened bethropolis 2013 by continuing his winning line, taking the title at the New York Half Marathon. He was among the favourites for the 2013 London Marathon, but he managed only fifth place, timing 2:07:47 for the distance. 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. He performed less well at the Bogotá Half Marathon, taking fifth place with 1:05:26 hours. On 29 September 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.

2014–2017

On 13 April 2014, Kipsang won the 2014 London Marathon in a course record time of 2 hours, 4 minutes and 29 seconds.
On 2 November 2014, Kipsang won the New York City Marathon in 2:10:59 in his first appearance.
At the 2016 BMW Berlin marathon, Kipsang ran the joint fourth-fastest marathon time ever, 2:03:13, which was good enough for second place behind winner Kenenisa Bekele in 2:03:03.
At 2017 Tokyo Marathon Kipsang ran CR with 2:03:58. After being forced to step out at BMW Berlin marathon at 30 km mark, Kipsang achieved 2nd place at the New York City Marathon in 2:10:56.

2018

After his success at the 2017 Tokyo Marathon, Wilson Kipsang has returned to Japan's capital, with ambitions to reclaim the world record that he has lost to compatriot Dennis Kimetto. In the press conference, he has quoted 2:02:50, as his target time. However, the world record was not to be his, as Kipsang was forced to drop out after just 15 km, with stomach problems. The former world record holder said, "I really wanted to go fast, but after suffering from stomach problems the last two days before the race, I didn't have the power to run a decent race today."
Wilson has returned to Berlin, in September, to attempt to break the WR as well as get even with his compatriot Eliud Kipchoge. In the pre-race press conference, Wilson has revealed that he would run a negative split, with 61:30 as his target time for the half-way point. On the race day, Wilson was unable to maintain the requested pace and ended up finishing 3rd, behind Amos Kipruto and Eliud Kipchoge, who set the new marathon WR, with the time of 2:01:39.

Provisional suspension and four year ban

On 10 January 2020 Kipsang was provisionally suspended for Whereabouts Failures and Tampering or Attempted Tampering of samples by the Athletics Integrity Unit.
In June 2020 Kipsang was banned for four years for doping offences. He had additionally tried to maintain that the missed testing appointment was due to a car accident, but it was established that the accident took place three months after the missed appointment.

Achievements

International competition record

Road running

YearRoad RaceDistanceLocationRankTime
2007Tilburg Ten Miles10 milesTilburg2nd46:27
2007Hem 10k10 kmHem1st27:51
2007Tarsus Half MarathonHalf MarathonTarsus1st1:02:05 CR
2008World's Best 10K10 kmSan Juan3rd28:09
2008Stadsloop Appingedam10 kmAppingedam1st28:39
2008Goudse Nationale Singelloop10 kmGouda1st28:34
2008Tarsus Half MarathonHalf MarathonTarsus1st1:02:50
2008Delhi Half MarathonHalf MarathonNew Delhi2nd59:16
2009Egmond Half MarathonHalf MarathonEgmond aan Zee1st1:05:36
2009Ras Al Khaimah Half MarathonHalf MarathonRas al-Khaimah2nd58:59
2009Stadsloop Appingedam10 kmAppingedam1st27:45
2010Abu Dhabi Half MarathonHalf MarathonAbu Dhabi1st1:00:04
2010Paris MarathonMarathonParis3rd2:07:13
2010Frankfurt MarathonMarathonFrankfurt1st2:04:57 CR
2011Kärnten Läuft Half MarathonHalf MarathonKlagenfurt1st1:02:25
2011Zwolle Half MarathonHalf MarathonZwolle1st1:00:49
2011Lake Biwa MarathonMarathonOtsu1st2:06:13 CR
2011Frankfurt MarathonMarathonFrankfurt1st2:03:42 CR
2012London MarathonMarathonLondon1st2:04:44
2012Great North RunHalf MarathonNewcastle1st59:06
2012Honolulu MarathonMarathonHawaii1st2:12:31
2013NYC Half MarathonHalf MarathonNew York City1st1:01:02
2013Berlin MarathonMarathonBerlin1st2:03:23
2014London MarathonMarathonLondon1st2:04:29 CR
2014NYC MarathonMarathonNew York City1st2:10:59
2014Granollers Half MarathonHalf MarathonGranollers1st1:01:18
2015London MarathonMarathonLondon2nd2:04:47
2015Granollers Half MarathonHalf MarathonGranollers1st1:02:39
2016London MarathonMarathonLondon5th2:07:52
2016Great Manchester Run10 kmManchester2nd28:15
2016Berlin MarathonMarathonBerlin2nd2:03:13
2017Tokyo MarathonMarathonTokyo1st2:03:58 CR
2017NYC MarathonMarathonNew York City2nd2:10:56
2018Tokushima MarathonMarathonTokushima1st2:19:35
2018Berlin MarathonMarathonBerlin3rd2:06:48
2019Vitality Big HalfHalf MarathonLondon6th1:04:07
2019London MarathonMarathonLondon12th2:09:18

World Marathon Majors results timeline

Personal bests

Source –.
SurfaceDistanceTime Speed LocationDate
Track5,000 m14:20.820.9Kisumu, Kenya30 April 2005
Track10,000 m28:31.521.1Nairobi, Kenya6 June 2008
Road10 km27:4521.6Appingedam, Netherlands27 June 2009
Road15 km41:35+21.7Ras al-Khaimah, UAE20 February 2009
RoadHalf marathon58:5921.4Ras al-Khaimah, UAE20 February 2009
RoadMarathon2:03:1320.5Berlin, Germany25 September 2016