Eliud Kipchoge says his family received threats on social media after the death of fellow marathon runner Kelvin Kiptum.
Two-time Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge says he feared for the lives of his family during a campaign of online abuse that wrongly linked him to the death of fellow Kenyan marathon runner Kelvin Kiptum.Some social media users began to speculate that Kipchoge was part of a conspiracy to kill Kiptum, who had lowered the world best to two hours, 35 seconds last October in Chicago.
"Sometimes they bike around, but we had to stop them because you never know what will happen. We started to drop them and pick them in the evening. "Where I come from is a really local area. And with the age of my mum, I really realised that social media can go everywhere."I saw no meaning to change training venues because my life is open," he explained.Kipchoge claims he "lost about 90%" of his friends amid the wrongful link to Kiptum's accident and online abuse.
Kipchoge's team decided to take the distance runner off social media in the wake of the abuse, but he said he never considered deleting his accounts."I will keep my accounts. I did not do anything."Kipchoge came 10th in the Tokyo Marathon on 3 March, his lowest finish since his debut in 2013, crossing the line over two and a half minutes behind the winner Benson Kipruto."It was my worst ever position.
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