Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich (born 15 March 1982) is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes primarily in the marathon. He won the bronze medal in the event at the 2012 Summer Olympics and held the world record from 2013 to 2014. In 2020, the Athletics Integrity Unit banned Kipsang for four years due to missed doping tests and tampering with an investigation.

Kipsang is a double winner of the Frankfurt Marathon (2010 and 2011) and has also won the London Marathon twice (2012 and 2014), New York Marathon (2014), and Tokyo Marathon (2017). His best time over the half marathon distance is 58:59.

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 (his time of 27:51 was the fourth fastest in a 10 km race that year). 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 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.Men’s race report: Kebede comes from behind to regain his crown . London Marathon (21 April 2013). Retrieved 1 June 2013. 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, beating second place finisher Eliud Kipchoge by over 30 seconds and setting 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 returned to Japan's capital, with ambitions to reclaim the world record (WR) that he has lost to compatriot Dennis Kimetto. In the press conference, he 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 returned to Berlin in September to attempt to break the marathon world record. In the pre-race press conference, Wilson 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 did set a new marathon record, with the time of 2:01:39.

Anti-doping rule violations and ban In June 2020, Kipsang was issued with a four-year ban backdated to January 2020 due to anti-doping rule violations, specifically four "whereabouts failures" between April 2018 and May 2019, and for tampering with the investigation by providing false evidence.

Achievements

International competition record Year Event Distance Location Rank Time2009World Half Marathon ChampionshipsHalf MarathonBirmingham4th1:00:082012Olympic GamesMarathonLondon3rd2:09:372015World Championships in AthleticsMarathonBeijingDNF–

Road running

Year Road Race Distance Location Rank Time2007Tilburg Ten Miles10 milesTilburg2nd46:27Hem 10k10 kmHem1st27:51Tarsus Half MarathonHalf MarathonTarsus1st1:02:05 CR2008World's Best 10K10 kmSan Juan3rd28:09Stadsloop Appingedam10 kmAppingedam1st28:39Goudse Nationale Singelloop10 kmGouda1st28:34Tarsus Half MarathonHalf MarathonTarsus1st1:02:50Delhi Half MarathonHalf MarathonNew Delhi2nd59:162009Egmond Half MarathonHalf MarathonEgmond aan Zee1st1:05:36Ras Al Khaimah Half MarathonHalf MarathonRas al-Khaimah2nd58:59Stadsloop Appingedam10 kmAppingedam1st27:452010Abu Dhabi Half MarathonHalf MarathonAbu Dhabi1st1:00:04Paris MarathonMarathonParis3rd2:07:13Frankfurt MarathonMarathonFrankfurt1st2:04:57 CR2011Kärnten Läuft Half MarathonHalf MarathonKlagenfurt1st1:02:25Zwolle Half MarathonHalf MarathonZwolle1st1:00:49Lake Biwa MarathonMarathonOtsu1st2:06:13 CRFrankfurt MarathonMarathonFrankfurt1st2:03:42 CR2012London MarathonMarathonLondon1st2:04:44Great North RunHalf MarathonNewcastle1st59:06Honolulu MarathonMarathonHawaii1st2:12:312013NYC Half MarathonHalf MarathonNew York City1st1:01:02Berlin MarathonMarathonBerlin1st2:03:23 2014London MarathonMarathonLondon1st2:04:29 CRNYC MarathonMarathonNew York City1st2:10:59Granollers Half MarathonHalf MarathonGranollers1st1:01:182015London MarathonMarathonLondon2nd2:04:47Granollers Half MarathonHalf MarathonGranollers1st1:02:392016London MarathonMarathonLondon5th2:07:52Great Manchester Run10 kmManchester2nd28:15Berlin MarathonMarathonBerlin2nd2:03:132017Tokyo MarathonMarathonTokyo1st2:03:58 CRNYC MarathonMarathonNew York City2nd2:10:562018Tokushima MarathonMarathonTokushima1st2:19:35Berlin MarathonMarathonBerlin3rd2:06:482019Vitality Big HalfHalf MarathonLondon6th1:04:07

World Marathon Majors results timeline World Marathon Majors 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Tokyo Marathon – – – – – 1st DNF – Boston Marathon – – – – – – – – London Marathon 1st 5th 1st 2nd 5th – – 12th Berlin Marathon – 1st – – 2nd DNF 3rd Chicago Marathon – – – – – – – New York City Marathon – – 1st 4th – 2nd –

Personal bests Source – .

Surface Distance Time (h:m:s) Speed (km/h) Location Date Track5,000 m 14:20.8 20.9 Kisumu, Kenya 30 April 200510,000 m 28:31.5 21.1 Nairobi, Kenya 6 June 2008 Road10 km 27:45 21.6 Appingedam, Netherlands 27 June 200915 km 41:35+ 21.7 Ras al-Khaimah, UAE 20 February 2009Half marathon 58:59 21.4 Ras al-Khaimah, UAE 20 February 2009Marathon 2:03:13 20.5 Berlin, Germany 25 September 2016

References

External links