Dennis Kipruto Kimetto (born 22 January 1984) is a Kenyan long distance runner who competes in road running events. He was the world record holder in the men's marathon with a time of 2 hours 2 minutes 57 seconds, a record which he held until Eliud Kipchoge broke it in 2018 with a time of 2:01:39. Career Hailing from Eldoret and part of a training group including Geoffrey Mutai, Kimetto's first major win came in the half marathon section of the Nairobi Marathon in 2011. 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. At the RAK Half Marathon he defeated a field including Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich to win the race in 60:40 minutes. His age was misreported as ten years younger, and his following run of 59:14 minutes to win the Berlin Half Marathon in April was briefly considered a world junior best. 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 for 25 kilometres knocked a sizeable margin off Sammy Kosgei's world record of 71:50. After this he made the fastest marathon debut in history that September. Again in Berlin, he ran alongside Geoffrey Mutai for much of the race as he recorded a time of 2:04:16, one second behind Mutai, to set the fifth fastest time 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 which clinched a World Marathon Majors series title for Mutai. In 2013 Kimetto set two World Marathon Majors course records, at Tokyo in 2:06:50 (since bettered) and at Chicago in 2:03:45, the fastest time ever on American soil for a record quality course. 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 5-kilometre splits were recorded as 14:42, 14:42, 14:46, 14:26, 14:32, 14:30, 14:09, 14:42. His second half of 1:01:12 was the fastest in history excluding those from the downhill and