Benson Kipruto, the long-distance runner who on Sunday clinched the Tokyo marathon with a 2:02:16 stunning finish, has had a long journey to success.
Hailing from Rift Valley, Kipruto's path to greatness started eight years ago, driven by his aspiration to become an elite athlete.
The 33-year-old has achieved a personal best in most of the marathons he has participated in and also made it to the top positions in the previous competitions.
His hard work started bearing fruits in 2016 when he came second with a remarkable time of 2:13:24 at the Athens Classic Marathon.
Continuing with his impressive performance, Kipruto finished fourth in the Praha Marathon, clocking in at 2:09:51 on May 7, 2017.
Kipruto claimed second place in the Gongju Dong-A Marathon still in 2017, completing the race in 2:07:21.
He won the 2018 Toronto Waterfront Marathon clocking 2:07:24 and the 2021 Prague Marathon with a time of 2:10:16.
In 2021, he won the 125th Boston Marathon and the 2022 Chicago Marathon clocking 2:09:51 and 2:04:24 respectively.
In 2023, he finished second in the 2023 Chicago Marathon, with a personal best time of 2:04:02, 3 minutes behind the late Kelvin Kiptum who broke the Marathon world record.
Kiptum secured a convincing victory at the 2024 Tokyo Marathon ahead of Kenya’s Timothy Kiplagat and Vincent Kipkemoi Ngetich.
Kipruto set a new record, improving on the previous record of 2:02:40 set by Eliud Kipchoge in 2022.
The former world record-holder had to settle for 10th place in 2:06:50 in the stiff competition.
The men’s race went out on a world record pace but by 15km, the tempo had settled slightly, and a four-strong group featuring Kipchoge, Kipruto, Kiplagat and Ngetich were running behind the three pacemakers.
Kipchoge started to drop back before 20km and he was five seconds behind when the leaders reached that checkpoint in 57:14.
There was a bit of a cat-and-mouse battle between the leading trio over the second half of the race, while Kipchoge continued to lose ground.
Kiplagat was five seconds ahead of his pursuers at 30km, passed in 1:26:08, but then Kipruto took control.