Career
He is the world record holder at the marathon and the 25 km road distance. Running as Dennis Koech, he topped the podium in a time of 1:01:30. He quickly rose into the global running elite in his first outings outside of Kenya.
An erroneous passport was the cause of both the age difference and the Koech misnomer, his surname actually being Kimetto.
This was rectified in later competitions. With Kimetto"s personal data corrected, he went on to break his first major record at the BIG 25 Berlin.
His time of 71:18 minutes at that race knocked a sizeable margin off Sammy Kosgei"s world record of 71:50. After this he made the fastest marathon debut in history.
He recorded a time of 2:04:16, one second behind Mutai, to set the fifth fastest ever run at that point.
Some reporters observed that Kimetto stayed solidly behind the more prominent Mutai in the final section of the race and concluded that he allowed his partner to take the victory. On 28 September 2014, Kimetto broke the world record at the Berlin Marathon with 2:02:57 and became the first man to run under 2:03. His 5k splits were recorded as: 14:42, 14:42, 14:46, 14:26, 14:32, 14:30, 14:09, 14:42.
His 2015 season wasn"t as impressive as he only completed the London Marathon, finishing third, failing to complete the IAFF Marathon World Championships in Beijing in August as well as the Fukuoka Marathon in December where he stopped at the 5k mark after dropping off the pace at 2k due to an injury.
He is scheduled to run the London Marathon on April 24th, 2016. Kimetto grew up in a rural farming community.
"I think what really motivates me to be a fighter is the fact that I come from a humble background," Kimetto says.