World Marathon record holder Kelvin Kiptum has set his eyes on conquering the Rotterdam Marathon on April 14, 2024.

Rotterdam Marathon is a World Athletics Gold Label road race and is not counted as a world major, but Kiptum hopes to reign supreme when he races in the Dutch city. The Chepkorio-born star ran in the Rotterdam course in 2019 but as a pacemaker and hopes to make his debut next year.

The 23-year-old had planned to make his marathon maiden appearance there last year, but he was sidelined by injuries.

Kiptum sensationally made his debut in Valencia, Spain, in 2022 and posted a stunning 2:01:53 before he upgraded that record to 2:01:25 when he triumphed in London earlier this year.

“I want to return here to run fast. This flat course lends itself to fast times, and the enthusiastic masses of people along the road push us forward. I would like to be part of the rich history of this marathon,” Kiptum, who made history in Chicago last month with his 2:00:35 world record, said, as quoted by World Athletics.

His main aim while running in Rotterdam is to shatter his own record he established in Chicago.

“I’ll try at least to beat my world record here. I know I’m capable of doing that if my preparation works out well and the conditions are OK.

“And in that case, I will get close to the two-hour barrier, so why not aim to break it? That might look ambitious, but I’m not afraid of setting this kind of goal. There’s no limit to human energy,” he added.

Kiptum’s target of registering another marathon record is not totally impossible, given that Rotterdam is no stranger to barrier-breaking world records.

Records broken at Rotterdam

In 1985, Carlos Lopes became the first man to run a sub-2:08 marathon, clocking 2:07:12. Three years later, Belayneh Dinsamo broke the 2:07 barrier with 2:06:50, a world record that stood for 10 years. And in Rotterdam in 1998, Tegla Loroupe became the first woman to break 2:21, breaking Ingrid Kristiansen’s long-standing world record with 2:20:47, according to World Athletics.

Buoyed by his performance in Chicago, Kiptum could as well post another record next year in the Netherlands. At the Chicago course, Kiptum posted a history-breaking 2:00:35 and took 34 seconds off the world record that had been set by his compatriot Eliud Kipchoge in Berlin last year.

He also became the first athlete to break 2:01 in a record-eligible marathon. Kiptum now has three of the six fastest times in history to his name, as per World Athletics.