Defending champions Eliud Kipchoge and Peres Jepchirchir shortlisted in Kenya’s marathon team for Paris 2024 Olympics
There were no major surprises as Athletics Kenya trimmed its marathon squads for the Paris 2024 Olympics on Thursday, 4 April, with Tokyo Olympic gold medallists Eliud Kipchoge and Peres Jepchirchir retained.
The highly-anticipated moment saw five men and six women named on the shortlists, with the African nation allowed to enter a maximum of three runners in each of the Olympic races.
Two-time defending champion Kipchoge headlines the men’s list, following the death of world record holder Kelvin Kiptum. The two men had been expected to challenge for the gold medal in the race on 10 August 2024. Kiptum died in a road accident aged 24 in February, five months after lowering the world record to 2:00:35 record at the 2023 Chicago Marathon.
Surprise addition to Kenyan men's squad
Former world record holder Kipchoge is joined in a men's shortlist that also includes Benson Kipruto, Timothy Kiplagat, Vincent Ngetich, and Alexander Munyao.
Four of the runners were in the provisional long list of 10 men named last December by Athletics Kenya, who then based their selection on the 2023 world marathon rankings, and performances at the six World Marathon Majors.
The surprise inclusion in the latest list is Munyao, who was not in that squad. He won the Prague Marathon last year before rounding off his season with a second place in Valencia.
Kipchoge, who will be targeting an unprecedented third consecutive title in Paris, tops the team as the fastest marathoner alive. Kipruto, who was second behind the late Kiptum in Chicago, is the fifth fastest of all-time.
Kiplagat is the runner-up from the 2024 Tokyo Marathon, while Ngetich was second in Berlin last year, behind double Olympic marathon champion Kipchoge.
Kenyan women's shortlist stacked with winners
Besides defending champion Jepchirchir, who finished third in the 2023 London Marathon, the women's shortlist comprises the reigning Boston and New York Marathon champion Hellen Obiri and two-time Chicago Marathon winner Ruth Chepngetich, who was second in the American race last year, and is a tested championship runner having won the world title on the road in 2019.
Others in team are Brigid Kosgei, the former world marathon record holder, who took silver at the Tokyo Olympics, Sharon Lokedi, the New York Marathon winner in 2022, and Rosemary Wanjiru, the 2023 Tokyo Marathon champion, who was second in this year's race over the 42.2km distance.
The women's Olympic race will take place on 11 August, the day after the men's marathon.
Team Kenya is expected to announce later in April the three male and three female athletes selected to start the Olympic races, and which runners will be nominated as reserves.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.