Kiptanui dominated the steeplechase at the Worlds throughout the first part of the 1990s. Having taken the title in 1991 aged just 20 and repeated the trick two years later in Stuttgart, talk was not only of a hat-trick in Gothenburg but also a world record.
The first he achieved with ease. The second he seemed well on course for - until he slowed dramatically. He still finished five seconds clear of the second-placed Kenyan, Christopher Koskei, clocking 8hrs 4mins 16secs, but appeared strangely disinterested in the record.
All became clear days later at Zurich's Weltklasse meeting. Eschewing the services of pacemakers he ran alone to a mind-boggling 7:59.18mins, breaking his own world mark by almost three seconds.
The difference? The World Champs doesn't pay cash bonuses when world records are broken; Zurich does.
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