Born in the south of Kenya's
Keiyo District, Kipruto was the eldest child in his family. His family had their own cattle and he often ran uphill to bring them water. He was inspired by the achievements of
William Kiplagat, a marathon runner who lived locally, and Kipruto began representing his school in the
10,000 metres. He was academically focused as a child and even though he began to train with
Colm O' Connell's group, he did not take up running full-time until he had finished his
KCSE examinations. Impressed by his performances at the provincial championships, Kiplagat offered to become Kipruto's coach and mentor. Kipruto travelled to the Netherlands in 2007 to compete professionally for the first time and he won a series of
road races. He made his debut over the marathon distance at the 2008
Reims Marathon, recording a time of 2:08:16 for third place. He began his 2009 season with a fourth-place finish at the
Egmond Half Marathon in a time of 1:06:01. He was part of a strong field of runners for the 2009
Paris Marathon and he surprised the race favourites by winning in a course record time of 2:05:47, breaking
Michael Rotich's six-year-old record by over 45 seconds. This established him as the thirteenth fastest runner over the distance at the time. After this he won the
Giro Podistico Internazionale race in
Castelbuono, Italy, dispatching
Duncan Kibet among others. He was invited to the
Chicago Marathon and managed to finish third, recording 2:06:08 to place behind
Abderrahim Goumri and
Samuel Wanjiru (who set a new course record). He opened the 2010 season with a run at the
Zayed International Half Marathon and although he set a half marathon best of 1:01:43, he finished out of contention in eleventh place. Running at the
Rotterdam Marathon, he again improved his marathon best with a time of 2:05:13 making him the tenth fastest runner over the distance at the time. However, this was only enough for third as rivals
Patrick Makau and
Geoffrey Mutai both ran under 2:05:00. He returned to the Giro Podistico race in
Sicily that year but could not defend his title and finished in third place as
Zersenay Tadese went on to win. An appearance at the
2010 Chicago Marathon resulted in a fifth-place finish in a time of 2:09:08, a mark below his best form. He opened 2011 with a second-place finish at the
Discovery Kenya Half Marathon in
Eldoret, coming behind
Abraham Chebii. He returned to Rotterdam in April and posted a fast time of 2:05:33, taking the runner-up spot behind
Wilson Chebet. He stepped down to the shorter distance for the
World 10K Bangalore in June and came fifth. He was selected for the Kenyan marathon team at the
2011 World Championships in Athletics. In the race he edged past
Feyisa Lilesa in the late stages to take the
silver medal and form a Kenyan 1–2 with the defending champion
Abel Kirui. In November, he took on
Haile Gebrselassie at the
Zevenheuvelenloop race and finished second behind the Ethiopian. Kipruto competed sparingly in 2012, running a best of 60:46 minutes at the
Roma-Ostia Half Marathon and entering two marathons: he was 13th at the
2012 London Marathon and managed only ninth at the
Hangzhou International Marathon. The following year he returned to action with a runner-up finish at the
Egmond Half Marathon (behind
Abera Kuma) and won the
Lake Biwa Marathon in Japan. He continued his winning streak by finishing first at the
Lille Half Marathon in a personal best 60:39 minutes and edging
Mark Kiptoo by one second to take the title at the
Frankfurt Marathon. ==Achievements==