A la poursuite d'un record, un destin tragique.

Kelvin Kiptum and Gervais Hakizimana were inseparable – the athlete and his coach tragically lost their lives in a car accident in Kenya on Sunday. Hakizimana’s journey as a Rwandan athlete was quite unconventional – he had competed in French races and held various small jobs before meeting the future king of the 42.195 km distance. A few months ago, the mysterious Kiptum, who emerged onto the marathon scene in December 2022 (winning in Valencia with a time of 2:01:53), claimed to be an athlete without a coach. But following his astonishing world record time in Chicago on October 8th, 2023, he proudly posed in front of a sign reading « 2 hours, 00 minutes, 35 seconds, » his new world record – faster than the legendary Eliud Kipchoge, alongside Hakizimana, whom he introduced as his coach.

Hakizimana lived between Kenya and France, a country he had joined in 2008 to « change his life, » as explained by Philippe Plancke, a primary school teacher in the north of France who knew him well. Fifteen years ago, Gervais Hakizimana arrived at Plancke’s home, where he stayed for several months with the hospitality of a passionate volunteer coach, in the footsteps of Dieudonné Disi, a Rwandan international road, track, and cross country runner.

Like dozens of East African runners, Hakizimana competed in races throughout France for years, earning modest prize money of a few hundred euros when things went well. Valued by race organizers, he juggled between French, English, and Swahili, and served as a translator for Kenyan athletes. « I lived for running. I needed money, so I ran every weekend, » he told AFP. « I was paying for the education of young people in my family in Rwanda. »

But over the years, as his performance declined and injuries piled up, he settled in Lyon and had to work « miserably » to make a living. « I worked cleaning buildings, washing windows, for example, to earn a salary and justify my papers, » including temporary visas, he explained. He also worked as a courier for an online platform and had his bike stolen several times before switching to a scooter. In 2022, he was relieved to obtain a ten-year residence permit.

During his time in France, Hakizimana regularly traveled to Kenya for training. It was in Chepkorio, in the western part of the country, where he had a year-round room, that he met Kiptum in 2013. « When we did hill sessions in the forest near his place, he was small but he followed us barefoot, after taking care of the goats and sheep, » he recalled.

Alongside other local runners, Kiptum (born in 1999) grew and adapted the workouts created by his French coach. Their collaboration took off in 2020 when Hakizimana was stuck in Kenya for several months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. « We live together in Chepkorio. It’s very close to his place, but it’s better for him not to go home. He rents a room, he needs to concentrate, to cut off distractions. He just runs, eats, sleeps, » the coach recounted.

In France, starting in 2013, Hakizimana helped Plancke create Unirun59, an association that helps high-level athletes find funding for training camps, travel, and equipment. The Rwandan, who gradually became a coach himself, also acted as their talent scout in Africa. Before coaching Kiptum, he trained Kenyan athlete Kenneth Kipkemoi, who won the prestigious Rotterdam Marathon and finished 4th in Chicago in 2018. Unfortunately, Kipkemoi was suspended for two years for doping