Abraham Kiprotich

Who is Abraham Kiprotich?

Abraham Kiprotich is a French long-distance runner. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he competed in the Men's marathon but did not finish.

Born in Kenya's Nandi North County, when Kiprotich was just two years old his older brother, Paul Kipkoech, won the gold medal in the 10,000 metres at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics. Kipkoech died before Kiprotich had even reached his teenage years. Kiprotich started out as a track runner and in 2005 he set personal bests of 8:03.25 minutes for the 3000 metres, 13:59.63 minutes for the 5000 metres, as well as a road best of 29:43 minutes for the 10K run. He took up the 3000 metres steeplechase and gradually improved over the following years to achieve a personal best of 8:36.00 minutes in 2008. That year he also won the 10km de Clermont Ferrand in a personal best time of 28:41 minutes. Another best time of 28:29 minutes came in winning the 10km event at the Lille Half Marathon.

Kiprotich began running longer distances in 2010 and finished in the top eight at the Boulogne-Billancourt Half Marathon and the Marseille-Cassis Classique Internationale. Having served in the French Foreign Legion and lived in the country for several years, Kiprotich gained French citizenship and began to compete for his adopted nation. He made a career breakthrough at the 2012 Dusseldorf Marathon, running a time of 2:08:35 to finish eight seconds behind the winner and placed third. He was the second ranked French runner after fellow African-born marathoner Patrick Tambwé and was selected for the 2012 Summer Olympics. However, he failed to finish at the Men's Olympic Marathon, as did his compatriots Tambwé and Abdellatif Meftah.