Tycoon Jimmi Wanjigi Speaks on ‘Gifting’ Kipchoge Private Jet after Marathon Victory

Kenyan tycoon Jimmi Wanjigi has denied claims that he promised to gift athlete Eliud Kipchoge a private jet if he managed to break the sub-two-hour marathon barrier.

Wanjigi said the reports circulating on social media were false; adding that the Twitter account used to post information about his alleged promise to Kipchoge was a parody. 

“It is a fake account, it has nothing to do with me but we are proud of Eliud Kipchoge for what he has done for the human race and for Kenya in particular,” Wanjigi told Citizen Digital on Saturday.

His lawyer Willis Otieno indicated that Wanjigi does not own a Twitter account, stating that pages @Jimmywanjigi1 and @JimiWanjigi are fake.

“Congratulations!! You have done us proud #Eliud159. Plans are underway with @GulfstreamAero, the jet will be delivered to #eliudkipchoge before 29th November 2019,” the account @Jimmywanjigi1 tweeted.

The tweet was a follow up of a previous post from the same account on October 9th that claimed that the businessman had called Kipchoge and made a deal.

Kipchoge made history as the first man to run a marathon in under two hours, breaking the 2-hour mark by 20 seconds.

The 34-year-old Olympic Champion completed the 42km race in one hour 59 minutes 40 seconds in the INEOS 1:59 Challenge staged on the streets of Vienna, Austria on Saturday.