NAIROBI, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan trials for the 2024 African Games that were scheduled for this weekend in Nairobi have been canceled in honor of the late marathon record holder Kelvin Kiptum.

Kiptum, the London and Chicago marathon champion, died on February 12 in a road accident that also claimed the life of his Rwandese coach Gervais Hakizimana.

"Athletics Kenya (AK) wishes to inform all athletes and the entire athletics fraternity that the trials for African Games, which were scheduled to take place on February 16 and 17, have been canceled in honor of the late Kiptum," the local federation said in a statement issued on Thursday.

AK added the selection event for the African Games that will be held in Ghana from March 18-22 will be announced in "due course."

Kiptum, who smashed the previous record of 2:01:09 by almost a minute when he won the Chicago Marathon in 2:00:35 in September 2023, will be buried on Saturday in his rural Chepkorio home in northwest Kenya.

On Monday, parliamentarians called for further investigations into the accident that also saw a third passenger, identified as Sharon Kosgey, escape with injuries as they observed a minute of silence in honor of Kiptum.

However, police confirmed on Wednesday that the cause of death of the marathon star and his coach was a result of injuries sustained in the car crash.

"The sensor of the airbag normally is at the front, and if there was no impact on the front part of the vehicle, the airbags will not move," Keiyo South sub-county police commander Dahir Abdullahi told reporters.

"The impact (on Kiptum's car) was on the roof...on the top of the car...so that is why we could not see the airbags out," Abdullahi added.

Kiptum rose to prominence in December 2022 after storming to the fastest marathon debut in history when he clocked 2:01:53 to win in Valencia.

Barely four months later, in April last year, he smashed the London Marathon record when he won in 2:01:25 - that was only 14 seconds shy of the then-world record of 2:01:09 run by compatriot Eliud Kipchoge at the 2022 Berlin Marathon.

In September 2023, he finally beat the world record with an astounding performance in Chicago.

His Belgian management firm Golazo Sports had identified the flat Rotterdam Marathon course as the venue where Kiptum was to attempt a record-eligible sub-two-hour marathon on April 24. Enditem

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